


Digimon Paladins

by FullmetalDude1



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alien Flora & Fauna, Alternate Universe - Digimon, Bad Flirting, Bad Spy Work, Being Picked Up Princess Style, Bonding over food, Campfire stories, Camping, Childhood Memories, Choking, Cocoa Grapes, Crystals, Culture Misunderstanding, Digimon Adventure 02 Dub References, Digimon Frontier References, Digimon Partnership, Digital World History, Digivice: D3, Enemies to Friends, Epic Battles, Evil Plans, Fear, Female Shiro (Voltron), Flustered Lance (Voltron), Friendship, Genderbending, Hunting, Injured Background Characters, Inspirational Speeches, Meat Apples, Minor Injuries, Near Death Experiences, Nearly Crushed Under Straw and Wood, Nearly Eaten Alive, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Passing Out, Prison, Ruined Coin Toss, Separations, Slavery, Soup, Straw House, Unfair Fight, Vines, Worldbuilding, You're Alive Hugs, a little slice of heaven, falling, hideout
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-05-17 17:10:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14835761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullmetalDude1/pseuds/FullmetalDude1
Summary: In Digimon Paladins, we meet Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Keith and Shiro as they dive into the Digital World to find the DigiDestined and to save the Digital World from King Drasil's army. As they go about their travels, they stumble across friendship, danger, huge monsters that wanna destroy them and much, much more.Cross posted on Fanfiction.Net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13127009/1/Digimon-Paladins





	1. I'm Going Digital

The midday sun shines down on the streets, making a vibrant city shine right back. Near the edge of the city, leaves dance in the wind and with one another, bending and twisting. They fly through the air as ordinary people go about their ordinary lives. They float and tumble nearer the bottom of a suburban street, where a door opens.

“I’m heading to the beach!” A tall boy with brown hair calls, dressed in blue swim shorts and a faded white shirt, a bicycle at his side.

“Okay, honey, have a good time!” A voice calls from the door.

The boy closes the door as the leaves tumble past him and the wind makes his shirt and swim shorts ruffle. He turns to the sky and watches the leaves dance away with shining blue eyes and a small smile, before getting on his bike and riding down the street.

“Yahoo!”

The leaves race the boy until they part at the corner of the street, where the bicycle goes on and the wind carries the leaves down the new path. A large boy in a orange headband, yellow shirt and brown cargo pants walks with his hands full, a tray of still steaming cupcakes in his mitten covered hands.

“Easy, eas-whoa!” He ducks as the leaves nearly fly into his face.

He looks down at his cakes and when he sees all is well, breathes a sigh of relief, “Thank goodness.”

He looks up and smiles, humming as he continues on his journey.

The leaves dance away from the street, back into the high sky where a particularly strong gust of wind takes them further than they’d gone before, into the more erban town. The leaves pass by a window, where a girl dressed in a green shirt and black leggings sits on her bed with a computer in her lap.

She types furiously, murmuring, “Just a few more modifications-”

“Hurry up, slow coach or we’ll miss it!” A voice calls.

The girl growls and closes her laptop, “Fine!”

While shoving it into her backpack, the leaves head towards a green space. They pass many people who are walking and enjoying the high noon sun, but they also pass a boy in a black shirt, black leggings and a red and white jacket resting in the shade. He blinks as the leaves pass and smiles, before going back to his sketchpad.

The leaves finally lose the wind and land on a girl lying in the grass. She blinks, steel grey eyes staring at the leaf perched on her nose and the ones on her black vest. She sits up and brushes the leaves off herself and grabs the water bottle next to her. She tucks her black leggings clade legs under her as she chugs the water down.

She gasps as she stops drinking and whips her forehead, “Better get back to it.”

She stands up, popping on her black, narrow, aviator goggles and starts running.

The leaves the girl had brushed off begin to glow white.

* * *

At the beach, the boy with the swimming trunks bursts his head out of the water and grins, taking out his small rebreather and basking in the sunlight, “Nothing like the water, the salt and the sand!”

He takes a deep breathe, puts the rebreather back on and then dives back under the water. His shirt gently moves with the waves and his own motions as he dives deeper and deeper, keeping his eyes peeled as he travels further down. He doesn’t dare pass the safety of the area where he knows the lifeguards can see and get him, even though he’s been swimming since he was a baby. Anything could happen.

As he gets closer, he finds something unusual. A weird glow at the bottom of the sea. He swims closer to it and it fades as he gets closer, but there’s something there. It doesn’t look like a fish, or anything he’s seen before.

He narrows his eyes and when the weird glow completely disappears, there seems to be… some sort of giant clam under the water and…

Is that thing blinking at him?

He nervously blinks back, wondering what the hell this thing is.

Then the shell bursts open and the thing inside the clam screams, “OH MY GOD, ARE YOU A HUMAN!”

The boy damn near screams and shoots off to the surface as fast as he can go. Shit, shit, shit, what the hell is that thing, please don’t let it be an invading alien-

He breaks the surface and takes his rebreather out, frantically looking around, “Is it still following me?”

“Yep!”

He screams as he turns around and the weird giant clam looks at him, it’s shell open to reveal some kind of green jellyfish inside.

“I need your help, human, please!” The clam looks like it would be pleading if it had hands, “I need to find the DigiDestined!”

He frowns and blinks at it, repeatedly, “Is that some kind of boy band or something, because in that case, I don’t know who they are sorry.”

The shell frowns deeply and oh God, it’s gonna cry, “Then I’ll need to find them before, before-”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” He gulps, “Uhh, I’ll help you find them before whatever happens.”

The clam smiles wide and bright, “You will?!”

The boy nervously smiles back, “Yeah…”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, human!” The clam jumps around him in a circle, repeating the phrase over and over again.

The boy laughs, “Okay, okay, but can I get your name, first?”

The clam stops in front of him and giggles, “My friends call me Syakomon, but you can call me Syakomon!”

The boy smiles, “I’m Lance, but my friends call me Sharpshooter.”

“Ohh, ohh, that’s super cool Lance, can you tell me why you’re called the Sharpshooter!” Syakomon blushes and excitedly opens and closes her clam.

“Yeah, sure.” Lance smiles, “Let’s get to finding these… DigiDestined first though and I can tell you on the way. Do you know what they look like?”

“No idea!” Syakomon smiles.

Lance anime sweat drops and falls, “Well, that’s going to make things more interesting.”

* * *

A woman laughs as she finishes eating a cupcake, turning to the gifter, “That was delicious, Hunk, another masterpiece. I’m honoured you decided to let me have the first sample!”

The boy with the cupcakes blushes, “Awww, it was nothing, Mrs. McClain, it’s the least I can do.”

“Oh my boy, you don’t owe us anything, I assure you.” A man laughs as he pats Hunk on the head, “You’re like the little brother I never had.”

“What about Lance?” Hunk asks.

The man laughs, “Yeah, but he’s annoying and you’re not.”

“What was that about me?!”

“Lance!” Hunk and the others call out, smiling as they see him, “Where have you been, man?”

“Ocean, where else?” Lance shrugs, hands behind his back, “Hey, Hunky buddy old pal, can we talk in my room?”

Hunk blinks, “Yeah, sure.”

Lance grins, “Great, come on then!”

Hunk smiles and walks next to his friend, waving at the family, “See you guys in a second!”

“Bye, Hunk!” The family call and go back to eating the cupcakes.

Hunk follows Lance down the hall and whispers, “What do you need me to help you sneak up to your room?”

“It’s a… long story.” Lance chuckles, “But uhh, it’s essentially a giant pink clam that can talk. And, uhh, can you call that friend of yours over? The techie girl?”

“Pidge? Yeah, but what for?” Hunk’s eyes widen, “Oh God, please don’t tell me this clam thing is an alien that’s taken over your brain!”

“No, no, nothing like that, I just…” Lance shrugs, “The clam needs to find some people and I offered to help!”

Hunk groans, “This is gonna be fun to explain to Pidge. She’s gonna think I’m nuts.”

Lance grins, “I thought she liked you because you’re nuts, Hunk.”

Hunk flushes, “Lance!”

Lance laughs as he runs up the stairs. Hunk groans and pulls out his phone.

* * *

“Shiro, stop, please, I’m dying!” The girl with the computer falls to the grass, heaving as she lies on her back.

“Come on Pidge, we’ve barely started.” The girl with the goggles looks down towards her friend, “Besides, jogging is good exercise and I know you can do it.”

Pidge huffs, “You have too much faith in me, Shiro.”

Shiro chuckles and sits down, “Okay then, let’s take a break. You need some water?”

Pidge’s eyes light up.

Shiro laughs and passes her the bottle, “Here.”

Pidge sits up and starts chugging the water greedily. Shiro smiles and looks up at the sky, frowning. There seems to be puffy white clouds everywhere and growing darker.

“Odd.” She opens a zipper in her vest and brings out her phone, “The forecast said we’d have clear skies all weekend.”

“Technology is great, but the weather is unpredictable, Shiro.” Pidge wipes her mouth, “You never can trust it that much.”

Shiro hums, “I guess. I just hope it doesn’t get foggy or rainy. That’s the last thing we need.”

 _I’M GOING DIGITAL_ _  
_ _COMPLETELY DIGITAL_

“Oh, my phone!” Pidge pulls out her phone and grins, “Hey, this is Pidge Gunderson, what do you want with me, mortal? Oh, Hunk! Good to hear from you. Why do you need me at your best friend’s house?” She narrows her eyes, “He found a what?” She nods a couple of times, making sounds of confirmation, “Sure, I’ll be there soon, see ya.”

She ends the call and puts the phone back in her shirt pocket.

Shiro smiles, “That mechanic friend of yours needs ya?”

Pidge shrugs on her bag nearby, containing her laptop, “Actually, it’s his idiot best friend that needs me. They’re not far from the park, but it’s gonna be a pain to walk and my family aren’t picking me up until I’ve done my exercise with you.”

Shiro stands up too, dusting herself off, “Only one thing for it then.”

Pidge blinks at her in confusion.

Shiro kneels before Pidge and grins over her shoulder, “Need a lift?”

Pidge grins and jumps on, “You bet!”

Shiro stands, “Hold on tight!”

Pidge holds on around Shiro’s shoulders loosely and wraps her legs around Shiro’s waist tightly. Shiro loops her arms under those legs and begins to run.

“Now this is the way to travel!” Pidge laughs.

* * *

The boy with the sketchpad is quiet as he puts his art supplies away. He walks away from under his tree and notices something lying in the grass. He jogs over to it and picks it up.

It’s the water bottle that girl with the goggles was using.

He looks around and sees her exiting the park at a surprising speed with her friend on her back. Well, he can’t just leave this here without it’s owner. He swings his sketchpad book over his shoulder and chases after the girls.

The taller girl is surprisingly quick with the other girl and her giant backpack weighing her down. But he manages to keep track. The smaller girl looks behind her and he tries to wave to her, raising the water bottle. She says something to the taller girl, who stops and turns his way. He gives it one last sprint to catch up to her, on the side of a busy road while the traffic lights let the cars roll past.

“Here.” He offers the water bottle to the girl with the goggles, “I saw you left it at the park.”

She smiles as she takes the water bottle, then passes it to her hitchhiker who presses the traffic light button, “Thanks a lot, it would’ve been a shame to lose this. What’s your name?”

“Keith.” He replies as the light turns orange.

She adjusts her friend on her back, “I’m Shiro and this is Pidge.”

“Nice to meet you!” Pidge waves as the light turns red.

Keith nods and walks with the two as they walk across the street, “Hi.”

Well his work here is done, so he should probably stop botheri-

His eyes widen as an out of control car spirals down the street.

-He grabs Shiro and throws himself, her and Pidge forward as best as he can to get out of the way of the car. It shoots past them while they reach the other side of the street.

Pidge heaves, “MY LIFE FLASHED BEFORE MY EYES!”

Shiro sets Pidge down and kneels next to him, “Keith, are you okay?”

Keith nods, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

Shiro gapes at him, “You risked your life just to get us out of the way of an out of control car. You sure you’re okay?”

Keith stands, “I’m fine, really.” He offers Shiro his hand, giving her a quick once over; there don’t appear to be any bruises or bumps on her, “You okay?”

Shiro nods hesitantly and takes his hand. Keith pulls her up and moves towards Pidge. He offers her his hand as well, but she gets up on her own and gets her backpack on. She shakes his hand instead and hums as she looks around.

“Well, we’re nearly at my friend’s house and I’m sure Shiro’s gonna be guilt ridden unless she at least gets to make you some tea to thank you for saving our asses.” Pidge’s grip turns surprisingly strong, “So do us a favour and save us the melodramatic search of the city to pay back a debt, okay?”

“Pidge!” Shiro groans.

Well, it couldn’t hurt, but, “I didn’t really do anything, but, okay.”

Pidge laughs and lets go of his hand, “Great, this way!”

She walks off and Keith follows. Shiro walks next to him and smiles sheepishly.

“If you don’t want anything, that’s fine, Pidge just likes to tease me.” Shiro chuckles nervously.

Keith shakes his head, “I don’t, but I get the feeling she’d kill me if I tried running away.”

Shiro laughs, “She might!”

Keith offers a small smile.

* * *

A knock on the door.

“I’ll get it!” Lance runs for the door and opens it, “Hello, humble guest, welcome to my abode!”

“Hey, Lance.”

Lance’s face turns firecracker red as he opens his eyes and looks up and oh God, oh God, oh-

“Takae Shirogane, oh my God!” Lance steps aside, “Welcome in man, it’s really cool to meet you, you’re so cool, wow!”

Shiro laughs and smiles at him, “You don’t have to be so formal, Lance.”

“But you’re a living legend, Shiro the Hero who always beats the highest levels on Donkey Madness!” Lance gushes and then goes into the kitchen, “Do you want some water, a snack, me to be your servant for life?”

Shiro giggles, “Uhh, no, we’re good actually. Pidge said Hunk called her over for something and we decided to come along as well to see if we could be of any help.”

Lance blinks, “We?”

Shiro nods and steps to the left, “This is Keith.”

Lance’s face goes firecracker red once more and he growls, “YOU?!”

Keith, oh so absolutely NOT innocent Keith, blinks, “Me?”

Shiro blinks and turns to Keith, “You know Lance?”

Keith shakes his head, “Never seen him before in my life.”

As if he doesn’t know, “You’re the one who’s always beating my high score in Donkey Madness! Well it ends today, we’re gonna play it now!”

“Uhh, Lance, I think we have more important things to worry about right now!” Hunk walks down the stairs and enters the hallway, “Like the thing in your room!”

Pidge’s eyes sparkle, “Show me, Hunk!”

“I wanna see, too!” Shiro calls.

The two walk towards the stairs and Keith follows them.

Lance snarls, “No way am I letting the enemy in my room, outta the way!”

He shoved Keith into the wall, who grunts as he hits it. Lance snickers and walks past him, head held high.

“Lance!”

Uh oh.

Shiro stands before him, hands on her hips and glaring at him.

Lance blinks innocently, trying to be cute and charming as he shrinks in on himself for protection, “Yes?”

“I don’t know what Keith did to make you mad, but you shouldn’t be so mean to him.” Shiro folds her arms, “He’s my friend and so are you, so I’d prefer it if you didn’t fight, okay.”

Keith? Her friend?!

Lance watches as he stands up and walks in front of him, “Fine.”

He’d save putting this jerk in his place when it’s just the two of them.

Lance, Shiro and stupid Keith head up the stairs, towards his room at the end of the hallway. Lance goes to step in front of them and grins as he grabs his doorknob.

“What you’re about to see is totally top secret and going to utterly blow your mind.” Lance opens it, “So be warned!”

Keith and Shiro peer in and gasp. Lance looks in as well and grins.

There’s Syakomon, chattering away with Hunk and Pidge like it’s perfectly normal. He knew they’d be good friends.

“And you’re from an entirely different world?!” Pidge looks like her birthday and Christmas came early.

“Uh-huh!” Syakomon giggles, “I’m from the Digital World, it’s a place where Digimon like me used to live in harmony and go about our daily lives in peace!”

“Used to?” Shiro approaches, “What changed?”

Syakomon lowers her head, “The Host Computer, King Drasil, went nuts. We don’t know why, but he’s been ordering the Royal Knights and their servants to destroy all Digimon. Knightmon and Wisemon, the Digimon who used to protect us, fused together and now attack all of us. We’ve been keeping our clams shut and heads down to survive, but I don’t know how much longer we can take this.”

Lance goes to pick her up, “Is that why you needed the help of these DigiDestined people?”

Syakomon nods and looks at everyone in the room sitting in a circle in front of her, “Yeah. The DigiDestined are special humans with the power to save us all. They saved the Digital World before and I hope they can do it again. They have these special powers to give Digimon the energy we need to Digivolve and get strong enough to fight Knightmon and the others. But I only know them from the stories, which didn’t care about how they looked or who they were in the human world. So I have no idea how to start looking.”

The group hum in thought and sympathy.

Keith stands up, “What did the stories say about the DigiDestined?”

Syakomon hums, “The stories said that each DigiDestined represented a trait and were known for it. It was through these traits that they managed to save us all and-”

The ground shakes.

“What’s going on?!” Pidge calls.

Keith runs to the window and gasps, “There’s fog in the park and I think there’s some kind of giant monster in it.”

“What?!” The others call.

Syakomon gasps, “Oh no, it’s happening already!”

Lance turns to her, “What is?”

“I don’t know why King Drasil is destroying the Digital World, but I thought he was going to invade the human world too eventually!” Syakomon jumps to the window sill, “I need to protect you guys from his soldiers.”

She jumps off the window sill.

“Syakomon, no!” Lance looks out the window and starts to climb through it, “Don’t worry, we’re coming!”

“Uhh, Lance!” Hunk grabs his arm, “I hate to be the voice of reason, as always, but when there’s monsters in town, shouldn’t you be running away from them?!”

Lance gets off the window sill and pulls his arm free, “But Syakomon’s in trouble! If there really is a monster out there destroying the world, then we need to go help her!”

“Uhh, we?” Pidge adjusts her glasses, “I never volunteered for monster fighting.”

Keith stands, “I say we go.”

Lance snarls, “What the hell, why are you agreeing with me?!”

Keith raises an eyebrow, “Because you’re right.”

Hunk gapes, “Are you serious, has everybody gone nuts?!”

Pidge huffs, “Not a chance, I say we stay!”

“Go!” Lance stomps towards her.

“Hide!” Hunk whimpers.

“YOU GUYS, STOP!”

The four of them stop bickering among themselves and turn towards Shiro.

“I know this isn’t an ideal situation and that it’s pretty terrifying.” She steps towards them, “But if what Syakomon said is true, then if we don’t help her, Earth is going to become a battlefield that none of us can fight in. We’re the only ones who know what’s going on right now, so it’s up to us to decide what to do. I say we go and help her. But we’re a team now, so we should decide together.”

The four of them look to each other.

Lance walks towards Shiro, “Well I’m going. No way I’m abandoning Syakomon to fight monsters all by herself.”

Keith nods and walks over as well.

Hunk groans, “Well I can’t let Lance get in trouble without me.”

Pidge looks at them and sighs, “I only wanted to stay so I could find a weapon first, like a broom or something.”

Shiro smiles, “Let’s find something we can use then and go get the monsters.”

“Yeah!” The group call.

* * *

People scream and flee from the fog in terror while Syakomon hops towards it. She’s not the most powerful Digimon but she has to try to stop whoever’s in the fog. For Lance and all the other humans here.

She enters the fog and gasps.

A massive red Digimon towers over her, a mouth full of sharp teeth, skin scaly, plates on his back and super big legs and arms with claws at the end. He has green stripes all over his body and blue eyes.

“Oh no, it’s Tyrannomom! A champion level, Dinosaur type Digimon, who turns his enemies to ribbons with his Slash Claw attack! This is one dinosaur you’d _wish_ stayed extinct!”

“ **FIRE BLAST!** ” Tyrannomon breathes out intense flames and burns the ground. He moves his head towards Syakomon, intending to burn her alive.

“ **WATER PRESSURE!** ” Syakomon shoots a jet of high pressure water at the intense flames.

The two forces battle evenly for a second. Then the fire overcomes the water and Syakomon prepares to get burned-

“SYAKOMON!”

Someone picks her up and runs off with her before the fire gets her.

She beams, “Lance!”

Lance grins at her, “You really think we’d let you get fried?”

Syakomon blinks in puzzlement, “We?”

“Lance, watch your footing!”

“Ahh!” Lance jumps over a fallen tree branch just in time and growls, “Shut it, Cooper!”

“That doesn’t even sound like my name!” Keith shouts as he runs next to them, “Pass me Syakomon, I’m faster!”

“No way, she’s my best clam friend!” Lance huffs, “Go back to throwing rocks at the dinosaur or something!”

“That’s no ordinary dinosaur, that’s Tyrannomon!” Syakomon pipes up, “You guys shouldn’t fight him, it’s too dangerous!”

“Don’t worry, Sy, we’re not gonna fight him.” Lance grins, “We’ve got a plan but we’re gonna need your help. Do you mind lending us a shell?”

Syakomon nods, eyes bright with determination, “Sure thing!”

“Great!” Lance hides them behind a tree while Keith goes running somewhere else, “Here’s what you gotta do-“

* * *

“Take that!” Pidge yells, throwing rocks at the dinosaur that can breath freaking fire, holy hell.

The rocks bounce back from his back, oh no, not good. Shiro launches a stick his way, like a spear throwing competition, but it doesn’t do much of anything to damage him when it bounces off his scales. The dinosaur turns around and roars at them.

“Uhh, I think we made him mad!” Pidge prepares to bolt.

“Ya think?!” Shiro calls.

The dinosaur opens his mouth-

“RUN!” Shiro grabs Pidge and runs as fast as she can-

“ **FIRE BLAST!** ” The dinosaur breathes fire in their direction.

The girls scream as they narrowly avoid it, falling to the side before they can get burned alive. They take a roll down the hill, Pidge in Shiro’s arms as they travel. They stop and groan, untangling themselves and getting up.

“You alright, Pidge?” Shiro asks, standing.

Pidge groans, “Scrapes and bruises at worst.”

Shiro nods and looks up where the dinosaur is still breathing fire, “The plan won’t work out that well if we can’t figure out how to close that mouth of his.”

Pidge looks around, humming and blinks, “I think I’ve got our solution.”

Shiro follows her gaze towards, “That… just might work, if we can get this right.”

“Guys!”

They turn their heads to see Lance running towards them with Syakomon in his arms.

“Does she know about the plan, Lance?” Shiro asks.

Syakomon nods, “But we need to shit his mouth somehow, or we’re toast!”

Pidge grins, “That’s just what we were thinking. So, do you think you can help us?”

Syakomon smiles, “Whatever you need me for, you got it.”

Lance nods, “I’ll help too!”

Shiro smiles, “Okay, while Pidge and I go help Hunk and Keith, you two need to-”

* * *

Keith gives a battle cry as he charges towards the dinosaur, knife in hand. He gets him in the leg, making the dinosaur howl in pain, then he snarls.

“ **DINO KICK!** ” The dinosaur raises his injured leg and sends Keith flying.

He screams as he travels through the air, preparing for a rough landing-

“KEITH!”

He gasps as he hits something that doesn’t feel like concrete and goes rolling with someone. They tumble for a few seconds and then heave for breathe, Keith trying to calm his heart.

“Thanks, Shiro.” He wheezes out.

She chuckles below him, gasping for breathe too, “Now we’re even.”

Keith gives a breathless chuckle, then gets to his feet, pulling Shiro up with him, “The plan?”

Shiro nods, “Syakomon’s working on a way to shut him up and Hunk’s almost done on his end. We just gotta distract him for a while longer and then be bait.”

Keith nods and starts up the hill again, “Come on then.”

The dinosaur peaks over the hill and roars, coming down towards them.

Shiro gasps and grabs his arm, “I think we need to go the other way!”

The two weave through the trees while the dinosaur follows them. In his head, Keith swears he hears music starting up.

_(Run Around by Jason Radford starts playing)_

“COME ON! We need to lead Tyrannomon this way!” Shiro sharply tugs him to the right.

Keith follows her while Tyrannomon roars, “ **WIND BREAKER**!”

He rams the trees as he chases them, turning them to splinters.

Pidge shows up, waving them to the right, “Over here!”

The two follow her as she has them run back towards the field where they first saw Tyrannomon.

Shiro calls out as Tyrannomon roars again, “Who needs to be were?!”

Pidge jumps over a bush, “Everyone’s where they need to be, just keep running then we’ll spring the trap!”

Keith nods, “I see the others!”

Lance, Hunk and Syakomon wave behind two trees, Lance cupping his hands, “Hurry up, before you’re turned into barbeque!”

Tyrannomon roars.

Keith, Shiro and Pidge split up, Keith going to join Hunk and Syakomon while Pidge and Shiro ended up with Lance. They all put their hands on the trees, which had been oddly cut  and about to fall over.

“PUSH!” Shiro yelled.

The humans and Syakomon pushed their trees with all their might, forcing them to the ground. Tyrannomon, who was walking too quickly already, ended up yowling as he tripped on them and fell to the ground. Keith grabs the rope they’d found by breaking into one of the maintenance shacks and runs for Tyrannomon.

Tyrannomon roars-

“Put a sock in it, ugly!” Syakomon jumps in front of him, “ **BLACK PEARL**!”

She shoots off several black pearls from her mouth, directly into Tyrannomon’s. He coughs and clamps his jaw shut, wincing as he recovers from the attack. Syakomon hops under his jaw next and Keith ducks under Tyrannomon’s jaw with a length of the rope.

He comes out the other side and throws it, “SHIRO!”

Shiro, who’s on top of Tyrannomon’s head, laughs and tosses it back down the other side, “Pidge!”

Pidge grabs it and ducks under Tyrannomon’s jaws to hand it off, “Hurry up, I don’t think he’s gonna stay still for long!”

The three of them work like lightning until finally the whole of the rope has been used and tied as tightly as possible to keep Tyrannomon’s jaw closed. Shiro jumps off and the 6 cheer.

“WE DID IT, WE DID IT, WE DID IT!” Lance shouts, tossing Syakomon up and down in the air while the clam giggles.

Hunk sinks to the floor, “OH MY GOSH, I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA DIE!”

Pidge pats his shoulder, “Well, we lived so now all we gotta do is make it through the walk home.”

Shiro breathes a sigh of relief and looks down at Keith, “Thank you so much for helping us today, Keith. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

Keith shrugs, “No biggy, I’m just glad everyone is safe.”

Shiro hums and offers him her hand. Keith blinks and takes it, shaking it strong. Lance groans and looks to Syakomon for comfort, who giggles in his face. Pidge rolls her eyes and Hunk smiles softly.

A moment of quiet.

“Grrrr-”

Shiro cries out as Tyrannomon gets up and she’s thrown off balance, falling off his head while screaming. Keith gasps and opens his arms to catch her as Tyrannomon breaks free from the rope around his mouth. He gives a fierce roar that shakes the ground while Keith catches Shiro and the two of them take a tumble as she hits the ground.

Syakomon gasps, “Oh no, it wasn’t enough to keep him down!”

Hunk screams as he jumps to his feet and tries to run off, “WE’RE GONNA DIE! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”

“NO!” Pidge grabs him before he can run off, “We have to do something, or the city will be destroyed!”

“Forget the city!” Lance huffs, pointing towards where Keith and Shiro fell, “The whole world is gonna be destroyed if someone doesn’t do something!”

Shiro picks herself up and looks down at Keith, “You okay?”

Keith nods and sits up.

Shiro looks over and gasps, “LANCE, WATCH OUT!”

Lance blinks, then looks up. Tyrannomon is staring him down directly and opens his mouth-

“LANCE!” Syakomon screams.

She begins to glow and out of nowhere, a shell shaped like an egg of blues and white strips of data, cocoon her.

**_SYAKOMON!_ **

**_DIGIVOLVE TO…._ **

Her shell clamps shut and drains of it’s pink, turning grey and getting bigger. Changing shape into a spiral. At the bottom of the shell, a pink thing emerges with two giant hands, fingers like suckers, and green hair. Blue patches appear on it’s shoulders and eyes open to reveal ocean blue. The new Digimon roars.

**_SHELLMON!_ **

The egg of blues and white strips opens up and the Digimon inside emerges.

Lance screams as Tyrannomon gets closer to eating him-

“ **AQUA BLAST!** ”

A massive gush of water knocks Tyrannomon far, far away from Lance, crashing back into the trees. Lance blinks as a shadow falls over him and looks up in shock.

“Syakomon?!” Lance gasps with a grin.

The pink Digimon in a shell smiles, “I’m Shellmon now, Lance.”

Lance laughs breathlessly, “Whoever you are, your timing was perfect!”

The two chuckle.

A massive roar interrupts the two as Tyrannomon escapes from the forest. Shellmon narrows her eyes and puts Lance behind her.

“Time to fight this goon and send him back to where he belongs.” Shellmon huffs.

“TAKE HIM TO THE JURASSIC, SHELLMON!” Lance cheers.

“Right!” Shellmon charges him, “ **SLAMMING ATTACK!** ”

“ **WILD BUSTER!** ” Tyrannomon charges her.

The two forces meet in the middle, creating wind that sends the scattered leaves flying everywhere. Occasionally one gains the upper hand, resulting in someone being pushed back and finding their second wind to give as good as they get.

Lance looks around desperately and gasps, “Guys, what’s that?!”

The rest of the group turn to where Lance was pointing and there’s some sort of white light with black pixels appearing and disappearing at will.

“Looks like some sort of portal.” Pidge muses.

Lance snaps his fingers, “I saw Syakomon come out of one of these, everyone get out of the way.”

The others jump back from it and Lance calls to her, “SHELLMON, TOSS HIM IN HERE!”

Shellmon grunts and wrestles with Tyrannomon to get him into position, “YOU GOT IT, SHARPSHOOTER!”

Shellmon backs up and shoots out water from her hair, “ **AQUA BLASTER!** ”

Tyrannomon roars as he’s pushed back from the force of the water and ends up falling right into the portal. Shellmon hums in satisfaction as Tyrannomon disappears and glows gold. She shrinks down and takes back Syakomon’s from, clam closed.

Lance runs over to her, “Syakomon!” He picks her up, “Are you okay?”

Syakomon blinks behind her clam and opens it a peak, “I’m alright, Lance, just tired.”

Lance smiles, breathing in relief, “Thank the stars.”

He puts his forehead to her and the two smile.

A bright sphere of light appears above the two. Lance gasps as he puts Syakomon in the crook of his left arm, reaches out with his right and grabs the light. The light fades in his hand to reveal a device that looks similar to a phone.

With a white base, blue grips, it has a black antenna on the top left. At the top centre of the device is a square shaped grey screen with a black circle around it and two arrow shaped buttons. Below the screen is a little red button with a white circle inside it, a line and a white dot on top of it. Below the red button is a ring shaped button with two small arrows pointing directly to the left and right from each other.

“What is it?” Lance asks as he holds it closer to his face, blinking in confusion,  “Can I get Donkey Madness on this thing?”

“It’s a D-3!” Syakomon gasps, her shell snapping open in shock, “It’s the device a DigiDestined uses to Digivolve their partners to the next level!”

“Really?!” Lance looks down at her, “Then, that means…”

Syakomon’s eyes well up with tears, “I found the DigiDestined! The Digital World is saved!”

The two laugh and hug each other.

“Syakomon, I couldn’t have a better Digimon partner in the whole world, no the whole two worlds!” Lance laughs.

Syakomon sobs, “Me too, Lance, you’re the bestest human I’ve ever met, thank you!”

Shiro and Pidge smile softly while Hunk starts crying and Keith shrugs.

“Well, I suppose, I better get world saving with my best clam bud, huh?” Lance smiles as he looks at Syakomon, “Let’s hit the Digital World and show ‘em something they’ve never seen before!”

“Yeah!” Syakomon cheers.

Hunk wipes his eyes, “Well, if you’re going, I’m going too. Can’t let you get in trouble without me.”

“Hey, hey, I wanna go to the Digital World, too!” Pidge calls, “If Syakomon is just a taste of it, I want the whole buffet!”

Shiro blinks at her, “Well I can’t let you guys go in there alone.”

The 5 of them look to Keith, who shrugs, “What’s the point of getting off this crazy train now? May as well hit the rest of the tracks.”

Syakomon’s eyes fill with stars, “Then it looks like the DigiDestined will have lots of help to protect our world!”

Lance smirks, “Let’s go then!”

The 5 humans walk towards the portal, with Syakomon in Lance’s arms. As they get closer, they glow gold and disappear. The portal disappears as well, along with the fog. All that is left is the destruction of the battle.

_“Well that went perfectly, wonder what’s next on this so called crazy train. To find out, tune into the next Digimon: Digital Monsters!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://fullmetaldude1.tumblr.com/post/174534075777/digimon-paladins-chapter-1-im-going-digital Link for the first chapter, please reblog so I can be supported.


	2. The Angel and The Ankylosaurus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Okay so last time on Digimon: Digital Monsters, this kid named Lance was just swimming around and minding his own business, when some weird clam showed up. After calling in his friend Hunk, who called in his friend Pidge, who brought along her friend Shiro and this guy they just met named Keith, the clam Syakomon told them about how the fate of her world was at stake and she needed the help of the DigiDestined. Then Tyrannomon crashed the party and the kids made a pretty sweet plan to stop him, but it didn’t work out too well. Then, when Lance got in trouble, Syakomon Digivolved into Shellmon to save him and send Tyrannomon packing. Turns out Lance was a DigiDestined all along and everyone decided to help him save the world. This oughta be fun.”

The 5 humans scream as they fall through the clouds.

“SYAKOMON WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Lance shrieks as he clings to his partner, D-3 clipped to his jeans while his jacket and shirt flap in the wind.

“I THINK WE’RE FALLING TO OUR DEATHS RIGHT NOW LANCE?!” Syakomon yells.

“THIS IS IT! THIS IS HOW WE GO OUT!” Hunk cries, “SO MANY FOODS I NEVER GOT TO EAT, SO MANY MACHINES I NEVER GOT TO PICK APART-”

“WE’RE NOT DYING, WE JUST NEED TO FIGURE THIS OUT!” Pidge snaps, looking around.

“WELL FIGURE IT OUT QUICKLY, BECAUSE WE’RE GONNA HIT THE GROUND PRETTY SOON!” Keith snaps.

Shiro looks around and gasps, “SYAKOMON, WHAT’S THAT FLYING TOWARDS US-”

She’s picked up by a whirl of action and movement. The rest of the kids soon get the same treatment.

Shiro opens her eyes and gasps, “Who are you guys?!”

There are 2 types of Digimon that caught them. One type looks like a flying orange horse with golden armour and the other look like flying white cats with white armour and yellow front paws with red scratches.

“I’m Pegasusmon, an Armor, Animal type Digimon also known as Flying Hope. I may be beautiful, but when I use my Mane Wind attack, I can be a real thorn in my enemy’s side.”

“And I’m Nefertimon. I’m also an Armor, Animal type Digimon known as the Angel of Light. I spend my days protecting the libraries of the Digital World with my Rosetta Stone attack.”

“Well thanks for saving us from falling.” Syakomon opens her shell while she sits in Lance’s lap as he rides a Pegasusmon, “We really needed your help just then.”

The Nefertimon flying above them with Pidge on her back purrs, “My pleasure, young ones.”

“Wait.” Pidge looks around, “Where’s Hunk?”

* * *

Hunk screams as he continues to fall, curling in on himself and chanting as he sobs, “I’M GONNA DIE, I’M GONNA DIE, I’M GONNA DIE!”

He’s this close to hitting the tree tops when vines shoot out of them, grab him and gently lower him to the ground. As he realizes he’s not about to fall to his death anymore, he looks around. Looks like your classical dark and creepy forest that is really giving Hunk the spooks right now. He looks down and shrieks as he realizes he’s covered in vines, jumping up and shaking them away. He runs off screaming while 3 sets of eyes blink at him.

He eventually reaches a stop, his adrenaline and will to run gone. He bends over and heaves for breathe, “Nice…. Going…. Hunk…. Knowing your luck…. Everything in the jungle’s gonna try to kill you now.”

Hunk groans as he straightens and looks around. The forest makes unfamiliar sounds all around him. When he looks up, he can’t actually see any clouds or blue anymore. It’s just a sky of trees and leafs with a little bit of sunlight peeking through, but that’s it. It’s… it should be a lot darker down here than it is and as Hunk looks around properly, he realizes why. There are beautiful blue crystals coming out of the trees all around. They emit a soft blue light that makes it possible for him to see.

“Whoa, this is…” He reaches out to touch one of the crystals.

“What are you doing?!”

He shrieks and jumps, turning around to see two Digimon there.

One is a yellow Digimon on all fours, with it’s back double plated with armor, along with armor on it’s head and back upper legs, too. It has three toed claws on both it’s hands and feet with a purple underbelly and a longish tail with 3 short spikes on it. It has 3 pointed ears flaring out the sides of it’s head, green eyes and a black nose.

The other is a orange Digimon with bat like ears. It stands on all fours, with 3 black short toes on the end of all its feet with a pale peach underbelly. It has a short pointed tail at it’s back and baby blue, big eyes and no disturnable nose.

The yellow one shushes him, “Do you want the flying Digimon to find us?”

Hunk blinks, “Flying Digimon?”

The orange one turns around, “We need to hide him before he gives us away!”

The yellow one nods and follows the orange one, “Hurry, Skyling, follow us!”

Hunk nods hesitantly and when the yellow one (who seems to be a girl from the sound of her voice) and the orange one (who seems to be a boy) starts disappearing into the underbrush, he follows them, “Uhh, okay so I’m Hunk. Who are you?”

“Armadillomon.” The yellow hums, turning to the left behind a tree, “Down!”

Hunk crouches down with her while the orange Digimon covers his eyes with his ears. Several horse like Digimon flew above them at stupidly fast speeds considering how dense this jungle is and disappeared soon enough, luckily.

“And I’m Patamon.” The orange Digimon giggles as he gets up, “Let’s keep going, we don’t wanna get caught out here by the patrol.”

Armadillomon looks up and nods, “Stay low, Hunk.”

“Okay, so uhh, what were those?” Hunk gulps, looking back as the Digimon fly on.

“Pegasusmon and Nefertimon.” Armadillomon hums, “Traitors they are, they sided with IceDevimon when he took over the Crystal Forest in exchange for protection from slavery.”

Hunk stops crawling, “Slavery?”

Patamon nods, “Yeah, IceDevimon showed up out of nowhere and started beating up anyone who wouldn’t side with him. Knightmon didn’t come to save us and now anyone who’s been found is stuck as his slave for life.”

Hunk’s eyes widen as he gulps and he hastily catches up to the two Digimon who hasn’t stopped moving.

Armadillomon looks behind her, “Don’t worry, we’re almost to the hideout.”

Hunk nods, “Oh-okay so like, what does this IceDevimon want exactly that he needs slaves for?”

“The crystals in this forest.” Armadillomon rolls down a hill and when Hunk joins her, she continues, “They can be refined into Fractal Code, which he can consume to make himself stronger.”

“Which makes beating him even harder.” Patamon chimes in as he joins them, trotting off, “Anything he doesn’t keep for himself, he gives to his master so he can still be in charge and boss us around.”

“Got it, I think uhh, oh man.” Hunk starts muttering to himself, “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.”

“It’s alright, Skyling, cry if you need to, but please be quiet.” Armadillomon knocks on the ground 3 times, “We’re here.”

Hunk blinks, “We’re wha-”

The ground opens up. Hunk clamps his hands over his mouth as he slides down a slippery slope while Armadillomon rides it like the waves and her shell’s the surfboard that Patamon is a master of using. They reach the bottom and the Digimon land on their feet while Hunk rolls a bit more before hitting a rock, then the air and finally the ground.

He groans as he gets to his feet and looks around the cave. He gasps, his eyes widening.

There are more of those crystals everywhere, providing light inside the cave. They seem to grow from the roots of the trees, larger and brighter than the ones above. They light the way through several tunnels, a soft blue shining over everyone and everything.

“This way.” Armadillomon starts walking down one of the paths, Patamon sitting on top of her shell, “It’ll take us to the centre where you can be safe with everyone else.”

Hunk follows her, “Okay, so, what actually is Fractal Code?”

Patamon blinks, looking up at Hunk as he speeds up his walk, “You don’t know?”

Hunk shakes his head, ground crunching slightly under his feet, “I’m kinda new in the neighborhood.”

Armadillomon sighs as Hunk reaches her side and she stops to look into one of the crystals, “Fractal Code is what everything in the Digital World is made of. Trees, mountains, Digimon, everything living has a Fractal Code of it’s own that’s unique to that special thing.”

“Yep!” Patamon nods and flutters his ears, “For example, my Fractal Code is going to be different from every other Patamon in the Digital World.”

“And mine is going to be different from all the other Armadillomon. Sometimes Fractal Codes can be linked, like how the different blades of grass in a plane will all be linked and can be consumed at once if someone wanted to eat their Fractal Code.” Armadillomon chimes in and then she continues walking, “By consuming Fractal Code, a Digimon can get stronger and that code inside them will bond with their own original code.”

Hunk gulps, “So essentially, by eating everything around you, you get stronger?”

“No one really does that, we’re not barbarians like IceDevimon!” Patamon huffs, “Only really evil Digimon will eat other Digimon’s Fractal Code.”

Armadillomon hums, “Or that of the world around us. That’s why we need to protect the Crystal Forest’s Fractal Code from him. If he finds it, he’ll be able to eat the whole forest and everyone in it!”

Hunk whimpers and starts crying, “Oh God, I wanna go home.”

Patamon and Armadillomon look at each other as he sits on the ground and curls up into a ball. Hunk heaves for breathe, as he buries his face in his knees, arms curled up to his chest. He chokes on his sobs while the Digimon nod. They walk over to him.

Armadillomon looks up at him, “Hunk, how can we help?”

Hunk chokes on a sob, his throat feeling like it’s closing in, “There’s nothing to help if we’re all going to die like this-”

“We’re not dying, Hunk.” Patamon hops onto his right knee, “I promise. Can you name 5 things you can see?”

Hunk whimpers as he looks up from his knees and around, “You two, the crystals, the cave around us and tree roots.”

“That’s good Hunk, you’re doing good.” Armadillomon starts to gently rub his left leg with her head, up and down, slow and steady, “Can you name 4 things you can hear?”

“My heartbeat, my breathing, you guys talking and…” Hunk puts his hand on Armadillomon’s head and Patamon starts flapping his ears, “Patamon’s ears making wind.”

“It’s to help cool you off, Hunk, you’re gonna be fine.” Patamon smiles gently, “Can you tell me 3 things you can feel?”

“The wind from your ears on my face, Armadillomon rubbing my leg and…” Hunk rubs her head and her shell a bit as his breathing calms, “Armadillomon’s shell.”

Armadillomon giggles, “You’re good at back rubs Hunk, thank you. Can you tell me 2 things you can smell?”

Hunk sniffs, taking a deep breathe through his nose, “The ground and… something cooking further down the tunnel?”

Patamon nods, “Yep, that’s the food we make for each other. We’re nearly there Hunk. Is there anything you can taste right now?”

Hunk shakes his head, but keeps rubbing Armadillomon’s shell, “No.”

“Well you can taste Vegiemon’s stew soon enough.” Armadillomon promises, “Do you feel you can stand, or do you need a few more minutes?”

Hunk shakes his head, “Just, gimme a few more minutes?”

“Sure thing.” Patamon stops his ears flapping, “Is there anything we can do to help?”

Hunk wets his lips, “Armadillomon c-could you put your head a little closer to me.”

Armadillomon burrows into the space between Hunk’s legs and belly, which opens when Hunk drops one of his legs to give her room, “Better?”

Hunk nods as he goes back to rubbing her shell, tracing the plates of it with his fingers, “Yeah.”

Patamon smiles as he balances on Hunk’s still raise knee, lifting his ears, “Want more air, Hunk?”

Hunk nods, “Yeah, that’d be cool, Patamon. Thanks.”

Patamon giggles and starts flapping his ears.

* * *

Directly above the surface, carts full of blue crystals are thrown into large pits of larva. They bubble and splutter and then the same strings of blue and white that Syakomon disappeared into to Digivolve jump out of the larva. This is Fractal Code.

Pegasusmon and Nefertimon fly around, catching the escaped Fractal Code in their mouths. They fly down to a barrel where it’s twisted open by two small devil-like Digimon. They deposit the Fractal Code from their mouth into the barrel and then it’s twisted closed again. They fly off to get more code, passing some kind of prison.

It’s a few pieces of wood with cages hanging from it. The cages are incredibly small, hanging from each other with clearly only enough room for one person. Inside each cage is a member of the rest of the team.

“Of course we had to trust the first Digimon who helped us out.” Lance bangs his head against the bars, hands clasped around them, “Of course they wanted our help to destroy this place. Of course they caged us up when we didn’t agree to that.”

“Well at least we’re all alive.” Syakomon pipes up from the cage bellow Lance.

Pidge tries to peek her head out so she can see Syakomon, “How come you don’t just Digivolve to Shellmon again and save us?”

“What is Digivolving, anyway?” Shiro asks from the cage above Pidge.

Syakomon sighs, “Digivolving is how a Digimon becomes stronger and gets older. If we have enough energy, strength and time, we eventually manage to do it on our own and stay in that form sometimes. Other times, we lose that energy almost as soon as we get it and turn back into our original form, so it can take a lot of practise to get it right.”

Pidge hums, “And you had to fight Tyrannomon as soon as you evolved, so you must’ve spent all your energy surviving that.”

Syakmon nods, “Yeah. Sorry I’m not any help.”

“Hey, it’s fine girl.” Lance grins, “We’re in this together and we’ll get out of it together. We’re all a team.”

“And they didn’t get Hunk!” Shiro chimes in, “Perhaps he’ll rescue us.”

Keith looks down from where he hangs next to Shiro, “I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Oh yeah?!” Lance snaps, grabbing the bars and growling, “Why’s that, Cerith?!”

Keith bites down a growl, “If he even survived the fall, he’s probably too horribly injured to rescue us. And like I said, that’s if he even survived. If we want out, we’ll have to do it on our own.”

Pidge gasps and brings her knees closer to her chest by hugging them, “No.”

Lance snarls, “I’m going to kick your-”

“Guys, calm down!” Shiro called out, “We can’t give up just yet. Yes, we have no idea what happened to Hunk and he could be hurt or worse, but we can’t lose faith. In the meantime, Keith is right. We need to find a way out of this. Are you guys with me?”

“Yeah, guys…”

The others gasp as a mist starts to seep in their cages, a Digimon rising in front of them with it. The air gets colder. Frost appears on their cage bars. They breathe out mist of their own.

“Are you with her?”

In the mist, the Digimon becomes clearer. His skin is white as a winter blizzard, with tattered bat-like wings on his back. There’s a dark pink symbol of a bat on his chest and on the top of his left foot. There’s a skull tattoo on his left shoulder and right knee cap. Buckles and black leather straps cover his waist, his upper left thigh, just below his shoulder on his right arm and on his left forearm. Brown bandages cover his right hand from the elbow to the knuckles, with a few straps on his left leg above and below his knee, one one his left wrist and two on his left hand. His middle finger on his right hand is wrapped in red bandages. Long horns like a bulls are on his head with short ones on his neck, dark pink eyes and a devil’s smile.

“Are you here to stop me?” The Digimon cackles, reaching inside Shiro’s cage to grab her chin, “Are you going to save the Digital World?”

Lance gasps, “Shiro!”

“Let her go you creep!” Keith snarls, pulling at the bars.

Shiro snarls and bites his finger.

The Digimon laughs, “Awww, is that your attempt at scaring me child?”

“Leave her alone!” Pidge shouts.

The Digimon hums, “Or what, little human? Are you going to bite me too? Not much it’ll do you.”

Shiro chokes as the Digimon shoves his finger further down her throat. He retracts it as she coughs, trying to regain her breathe. He grabs her neck then and chokes her. Shiro gasps as her air is cut off and she tries to yank his hand off her.

Keith reaches through the bars, “Stop it, you snake!”

The Digimon hums, “But she turns such a pretty shade of blue when I choke her. So cold, so quickly. Not a lot of Digimon are as warm blooded as you humans are. It’d be lovely to watch the life drain from her eyes.”

Shiro’s eyes widen as her struggling gets harder and she starts to see some black spots.

“But that would be boring.” The Digimon releases her.

Shiro falls to the cage floor, hitting her head on the bars on the way down. She gasps for breath, trying to regain what she’d almost lost.

“I’ll enjoy the taste of human Fractal Code soon enough.” The mist gathers around him and he becomes hard to see again, “For now, I’ll just watch you squirm.”

Then the mist descends, but things don’t get warmer. The frost remains and they still breathe out mist as they exhale. Shiro still hackles for breathe while Pidge growls under her breathe, Lance shivers in his cage, Syakomon stares into space with an expression of frozen fear and Keith turns to Shiro.

“Are you okay?” Keith asks, voice rising in panic, “Shiro?!”

“I’m fine.” Shiro heaves for breathe and gets up in her cage onto her knees, “Syakomon, who was that?”

“IceDevimon.” Syakomon whimpers, “And knowing him, we’ll all be eaten before we can escape this prison.”

“And what’s this Fractal Code he wants us for?” Pidge enquiries.

Syakomon sighs, “I’ll explain. It’s why he’s gathering crystals, to simplify.”

* * *

In a large cavern under the ground, blue crystals light up the dark as they hang from a knot of roots, looking like a chandelier. The cavern is mostly round, with various cracks in the walls for roots to sprout from with more crystals to light up the room. The floor is rough with bumps and cracks and mini hills, mostly smoothed over by various Digimon walking over during a long period of time. There is one large arch shaped entrance covered in several hanging vines.

Several Digimon chatter and mutter as they mostly sit in the centre of the large cavern, while some Digimon dash around between conversations to bring something to somewhere else. One wall has various Digimon leaning against it in agony, covered in bandages, plasters and other injuries. Other Digimon tend to those injured. Near this wall of injured people are several wooden tables stacked high with bandages, first aid kits and various other things.

On the other side of the cavern, there are other tables with lots of wooden bowls, plates, mugs and eating utensils. Next to these tables, on the ground, there’s a large metal cauldron boiling over a fire. Steam rises from the cauldron as a green-yellow Digimon shaped like a squash, with lots of red almost feathers sprouting out the back of his head that are tipped with blue, stirs the mixture inside with a massive wooden spoon, using his two vines.

“Nothing like a good old soup to cheer up a few innocent and terrified Digimon.” The Digimon chuckles and then calls over his shoulder, “soup’s almost done, kiddies!”

Various Digimon cheer as one stands up to run over to him. The Digimon is mostly green with arms, legs and a large face. On her head, a pink flower sprouts while her fingers are purple tipped and vine looking and while her brown tipped toes look like roots. Her dark green eyes twinkle in joy.

“I’ll help you serve it up, chief!” She giggles as she approaches the Digimon at the cauldron.

“Can always count on you, Palmon, that’s my girl!” The chief Digimon laughs and uses his spoon to point to the bowls, “You know what to do!”

“Right!” Palmon stretches her fingers out as they turn completely purple, “ **POISON IVY!** ”

Each of her fingers that have turned into vines and grab a bowl. They dip them into the cauldron, pulling out full bowls of soup. Palmon turns around and carefully hands the bowls out to various Digimon. Once all the bowls have been passed out, she uses her long fingers to grab spoons and gives them to the same Digimon.

“Thank you for the food Vegiemon and Palmon!” The ones who have it cheer.

Palmon giggles and repeats the procedure. Vegiemon watches with pride filled eyes.

Soon enough, each of the Digimon are digging into a bowl of the soup. Some of them drink straight from the bowl, forgoing their spoons. Other Digimon, who are weaker and too injured to hold their food, are spoon fed by Digimon nearby. Chatter fills the room along with a bit of laughter every now and then, while some Digimon just silently eat with their spoons and allow their friends to do the talking.

The vines russell.

The room goes deathly quiet.

Palmon scowls and using her vines to propel herself, she jumps from one side of the room to the other and stands in front of the vines, “Who dares to disturb this sacred place?!”

“Allies of the Destined and a future friend!”

Palmon beams and using her vines, she swings to the chandelier, “Guys, Patamon and Armadillomon are back! And they brought a friend, so don’t fear!”

The Digimon go back to chattering while Palmon jumps down to the curtain of vines to find Vegiemon already there. The two of them open the curtain enough for Armadillomon and Patamon to walk under it and another being they’d never seen before crawls with them.

“Guys, this is Hunk.” Patamon gestures to the funny looking creature with his ears, “He’s not from the Digital World and needs a place to crash for a while.”

Hunk waves at them timidly, “Hey?”

Vegiemon slaps his vines together, making a clap-like sound, “Welcome to our humble sanctuary, Hunk! Are you hungry?”

Hunk’s stomach makes an odd noise and his face turns pink, “Just a little?”

“I got it!” Palmon throws her arms back and then out, “ **POISON IVY!** ”

She grabs 3 bowls and a spoon. She fills the bowls with soup and then brings them to the new arrivals. She puts two of the bowls on the floor in front of the Digimon and passes the last one to Hunk, along with the spoon.

Hunk looks at her in awe, “Wow, that’s some talent Palmon.”

Palmon’s cheeks go a little pink and she burrows her toes in the dirt while placing her hands behind her back, “Oh, it’s nothing really, any Palmon could do it.”

“Maybe, but only my daughter can do it without spilling a single drop of my delicious soup!” Vegiemon circles a vine around her shoulders.

Hunk grins as he takes a spoonful of it, “Umm, this is super great, Vegiemon, but have you ever considered putting some more pepper in it?”

“Oh, now that’s certainly an idea. A fellow food lover, I take it?” Vegiemon chuckles behind one of his vines.

Hunk’s eyes brighten, “Totally!”

“Let me show you where the magic happens then, my fellow foodie!” Vegiemon starts hopping towards the table, Hunk following behind.

Patamon smiles from behind his bowl, “I knew those two would be good friends.”

Armadillomon nods in agreement, “We are fortunate Vegiemon has similar interests to Hunk.”

Palmon walks towards them, grabbing their empty bowls, “Any luck with finding a new water source?”

Patamon shakes his head, “I’ve looked all over, sorry. We couldn’t find one that wasn’t guarded by IceDevimon’s workers.”

Armadillomon sips from her bowl, “I couldn’t find any underground springs either. It’s as if he’s made the water disappear. It’s concerning.”

Palmon looks at their now empty bowls with a frown, “Chief used the last of our stored water to make this soup for everyone, so we’re gonna have to find a replacement soon or everyone will be thirsty.”

Hunk, who kept half an ear on their conversation, turned towards them, “You guys can’t get water because of this IceDevimon guy? What’s his deal anyway?”

“It’s because the Host Computer has abandoned us!” Vegiemon declares, looking away from his cauldron and towards the others, slapping his vines together angrily, “He just up and decided that the Digital World needs to go and has been trying to destroy us all since!”

Hunk looks into his bowl, “That’s so sad.” He looks around the room, “He’s managed to hurt you all like this.”

He looks at the Digimon at the furthest wall, covered in bandages and being spoon fed. The worry radiating off the Digimon tending to them. The tension in the room as everyone keeps an extra eye on the vines-

A russell.

Palmon swings to the other side of the room and snarls, “Who dares to disturb this sacred place?!”

“Allies of the Destined and Victims of the Tyrant!”

Palmon gasps and calls over her shoulder, “We’ve got injured here, we need medical attention now!”

A few Digimon drop their empty bowls and help Palmon pull back the vines while everyone else creates a pathway for the Digimon to reach the med bay. A white cat like Digimon covered in bruises and scratches and wearing yellow gloves with stripes limps under the vines and collapses into the dirt.

“Gatomon!” Armadillomon and Patamon gasp.

They run over with Hunk on their tails. The other Digimon start checking her over for injuries while whispers break out in the crowd.

“Oh Gatomon, speak to me!” Patamom whimpers.

Gatomon groans and turns towards them, “My sisters and I had a family reunion. It was a swell time, as you can see.”

Armadillomon hums, “Were you followed?”

Gatomon groans, “I don’t know, I lost my tail ring in the fight.”

Hunk whimpers, “You’re not looking so good buddy.”

Gatomon took one look at Hunk and gasps out, “Your friends need you. Hurry.”

Then she faints.

“Gatomon!” Patamon and Armadillomon shout.

Palmon slips her fingers under Gatomon and carries her, “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine, she just needs to rest.”

With a smile, she carries the injured Digimon into the crowd, which join together once Gatomon has gone through. Chatter fills the room as worry fills the air.

Hunk, Patamon and Armadillomon stares at where she last was in worry.

“So who is Gatomon?” Hunk asks in the silence.

Armadillomon lowers her head, “She’s something of a stealth expert. She sometimes pretends to be a slave to get the information we need on IceDevimon and takes a lot of risks in her work. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her so horribly injured.”

Patamon’s ears droop, “If even Gatomon got found out then it really is hopeless. Soon enough, this place’ll be found out and we’ll all be IceDevimon’s slaves, too!”

Hunk gasps, “Wha-”

Armadillomon turns to her friend, “It’ll be okay, Patamon. Even if we end up as slaves, we’ll still be together.” She rubs her head against him, “Maybe we’ll finally see the sky, too.”

Patamon sniffles, whipping his front right paw over his eyes, “Maybe. But what point is there to see the sky if we can’t fly in it together?”

Hunk curls his hands into fists, “You guys… have never seen the sky?”

Armadillomon turns towards him, “No. The forest canopy is so thick and IceDevimon has made sure that anyone caught above the forest is to be captured. Those who see what it’s like up there are never seen again.”

Patamon lifts his ears again, “Hey, do you remember when we were younger and we’d try to climb trees together?”

Armadillomon laughs and nuzzles under his ear, “I always wound up tumbling out of the tree and you’d have to catch me. But then we’d both fall and end up in trouble with Vegiemon.”

Patamon giggles, “Oh, what about when Palmon would climb with us? Oh, we were really in trouble when she was caught helping us climb.”

Hunk looks towards the plant Digimon, who is currently tending to Gatomon at the other end of the room. She swings one of her vines towards one of the medical kits at the table and pulls out a roll of bandages.

“Is that why she’s so good at using her vines?” Hunk enquiries.

“Yes.” Armadillomon explains, “She wanted to explore the Digital World and perform tricks for people using her vines. She used to practise every day before we all had to hide down here to be safe.”

Hunk watches the plant Digimon for a bit more and looks around the room. At all the Digimon talking and huddling close together, murmuring their fears and comforting their friends. He looks at Armadillomon tucked under Patamon’s ear as the two rub faces to comfort each other.

Hunk kneels down and smiles for them, “Well things are changing.” He puts his hand on her head, “You’ll be free soon. All of you. Palmon will get to perform, you two can see the sky and everyone else can live in peace.”

Patamon looks towards him, “How can you be so sure?”

Hunk raises an eyebrow as he grins, “Have you two ever heard of the DigiDestined?”

The two look at each other, then Armadillomon gives Hunk a confused look, “Yeah. Why?”

Hunk points to himself with his thumb, “Well one of them is here, in the Digital World. I’m his best friend and I’m here to help him save us all.”

The two gasp, Patamon in confusion, “But I thought they were just a child’s tale.”

Hunk shakes his head, “Nope, they’re real all right. Lance and Syakomon are gonna find the rest of the DigiDestined and they’re going to save you all. I’m going to help them do that, too.”

Tears form in Armadillomon’s eyes, “Syakomon’s alive?!”

Hunk nods, then frowns in concern, “Yeah, why?”

Patamon flaps his ears, “She’s been missing for many moons, too many to count now! We’d thought she’d been destroyed at IceDevimon’s hands!”

Armadillomon lets her tears fall, “Thank goodness she’s all right.”

Patamon’s ears point up, “But she might not be for long!”

The two of them look at him in confusion.

Patamon looks to the vines, “Gatomon said that Hunk’s friends need him. I think that means IceDevimon’s captured the DigiDestined and Syakomon!”

Armadillomon turns to the vines, “Then there is not a moment to lose. We must rescue them, at once!”

“Right behind you, Armadillomon!” Patamon chimes.

Hunk throws his hand out, “Wait!”

The two stop and look at him.

Hunk bites his lip, shakes his head and smiles, “First we need a plan of action.”

The two beam at him.

* * *

IceDevimon chuckles as he surveys the work of his many minions as they refine Fractal Code for him. So many hard workers, such little amount of time available to get things ready for his master. Good thing that fool isn’t visiting personally to see how much of the Code he keeps for his own plans.

Still a call in it quite a pain. As he floats above the destruction, he turns his head to this little messengers, “Vilemon, get me the communicator. It’s time for our illustrious leader to call in I believe.”

Two of the little pests salute him, “Vrepit Sa, sir!”

They fly away as he sneers in disgust.

“Vilemon are rather pitiful Digimon, Evil type and Champion Level. I doubt their Scratch Beat attack would do any damage to even a flower. But they get their jobs done, so there is some use for them.”

The two Vilemon return with a cream colored roll of something in their claws. They roll it out as another two hold it in place and it turns dark and fuzzy for a moment. Then an ominous silhouette appears. Covered in sinister purple armor and a cape stained in blood, violet eyes look at him boardly.

“Must you take so long to answer my calls, IceDevimon?” The Silhouette enquirers.

IceDevimon shrugs, left arm across his body while right elbow rests in it and he curls his fist under his chin, “I was just taunting the prisoners I captured my Lord. I think you’ll find them very… interesting to say the least.”

The Silhouette gives him a hard look, “And what would I find so interesting about these prisoners?”

IceDevimon chuckles as mist slips out of his throat, “They’re humans.”

The Silhouette sits up, “Are they DigiDestined?”

“I couldn’t tell my Lord but they were only accompanied by one Digimon. A harmless little thing named Syakomon.” IceDevimon laughed, “She couldn’t stop shaking as soon as I appeared.”

The Silhouette hums, “ _So she did survive._ ”

“What should I do with them, my Lord?” IceDevimon’s smile turns creepy, “Should I destroy them?”

“No.” The Silhouette orders, “Give them to Knightmon to send to me.”

IceDevimon nods and bows, “As you wish, my Lord. Vrepit Sa.”

“Vrepit Sa.” The Silhouette cuts out.

IceDevimon chuckles as the Vilemon roll up the communicator and fly off with it. Once he sends the ugly ones off, he can have the pretty one all to himself. He should inform Knightmon of the little fleshy things he’ll have the pleasure of housing in a while. Or maybe he should just drop by for a visit. Surprise that annoying tin can with his presence.

Perhaps he will, actually.

* * *

On the ground, Hunk, Armadillomon and Patamon hide in the underbrush on the border of the refinery. A wasteland with pools of lava that bubble and boil, while flying Digimon work in it. Other Digimon walk in long lines, ankles chained to each other as they use their bound hands to carry crystals. They squeal in pain when their feet touch a extra hot part of the ground, only for a flying Digimon to shoot one of their attacks at their feet and order they be quiet and to keep working. IceDevimon watches over the sight in glee.

Hunk gulps, “Okay this is just one really, really scary place. How do we find the prisoners?”

Patamon sits on his hind legs and holds his chin, “I remember Gatomon said that prisoners hang from wood posts in tiny cages somewhere near IceDevimon’s dispatching pit, wherever that is.”

“Maybe I should see if I can dig up some information?” Armadillomon raises her claws.

“No wait-“ Hunk grabs her claws, “that ground is too hot to stand on, let alone dig into. You’ll burn!”

“Oh.” Armadillomon rubs her head bashfully, “Ooops.”

Patamon gasps, “Guys, IceDevimon’s gone!”

The two gape at him, “What?!”

Hunk looks around and sure enough, the leader of this operation is nowhere to be seen. He gulps as he considers something, then his eyes harden with resolve.

“Then this is the time to go!” Hunk looks around, “We just need something to act as a cover.”

Armadillomon turns to one of the trees and grins, “Follow me!”

She runs for it and jumps right into the tree. Hunk stares in shock as Patamon does the same. They emerge not a minute later dragging out some kind of red blanket.

“Gatomon told us she hid her cover in a hiding tree!” Armadillomon pulls it over her as Patamon burrows under it, “Hunk, get in!”

Hunk gets under the blanket, shocked that they all fit, “Okay, so how do we move in this thing?”

“Just follow my lead.” Patamon walks until he’s in front, stands on his hind legs and grabs the blanket with his front legs to walk like that. Armadillomon grabs a part of it with her mouth and slips her tail through a hook near the end. Hunk grabs the corner nearest him and holds it over them.

With that, they start moving across the wasteland. They nearly get a face full of steam and almost fall into a few lava pits at times, but things are going surprisingly well.

Hunk spies the cages his friends are hanging from first, “Guys, I see them!”

“And I see you.”

Mist spills across the ground and seeps under their blanket, making them all shiver as the temperature drops dramatically.

Armadillomon drops the blanket and shoves Patamon into Hunk, “RUN!”

“ **AVALANCHE CLAW!** ”

The three of them get out of the way of their blanket just in time to avoid the barrage of icicles that pin their cover to the floor. They roll and get to their feet, each of them gasping as they see IceDevimon floating a few feet above them in the air. He gives them a smirk.

Behind them, Lance gasps and grabs the bars of his cage, “HUNK!”

“Well, well, well. So our hero has arrived, has he?” IceDevimon tilts his head as if inspecting Hunk, “Not much hope for these poor souls.”

“Don’t listen to him, Hunk!” Shiro shouts, “Get away while you can!”

Hunk trembles as Armadillomon and Patamon jump in front of him, the two of them giving him scowls.

“Leave the Digimon in the Crystal Forest alone, IceDevimon!” Armadillomon shouts, “We never did anything to hurt you!”

“Get out or else!” Patamon adds, jumping on top of Armadillomon’s shell and punching the air.

Syakomon gasps, “What are you two doing here?!”

“We’re here to save you, of course!” Patamon looks behind him.

IceDevimon barks out a chilling laugh. Attention turns back to him.

“I’m sorry, but do you really think I’d allow you to interrupt my plans?” IceDevimon snaps his fingers.

Ice starts crawling up the trio, who cry out in shock as they try to free themselves from their new prisons.

IceDevimon flies down and pats Patamon and Armadillomon on the head with a finger each, “So how about you two just chill out?”

The two growl at him, Armadillomon attempting to bite his finger.

“Leave them alone!” Hunk cries out, struggling to move his feet so he can punch IceDevimon properly.

IceDevimon grins, “Aww, are you cold?”

He grabs Hunk with both hands, yanking him out of the ice and tossing him in the direction of the nearest larva pit.

“Better warm you up then.” He laughs.

“HUNK!” Patamon screams, tears filling his eyes as he watches Hunk fall.

Armadillomon’s eyes narrow as she growls at IceDevimon, “You….”

The two of them roar in union, seemingly making the ground tremble as they do so.

_(“Here We Go” by Jason Gochin starts playing)_

The crystals glow bright blue and jump from the hands of the workers, transforming into data as they near Armadillomon and Patamon. The two are wrapped in the data, both sharing a shell.

**_ARMADILLOMON!_ **

**_PATAMON!_ **

**_DIGIVOLVE TOO…_ **

The yellow Digimon glows as she grows and grows in size. Her armor shifts to cover more of her body, each plate on her back gaining a spike. Her knuckles get braces and her tail is covered in armor, with a club appearing on the end of it. Her ears go hard and become armor as well, the glow fading to reveal a more golden look of the protective skin.

The orange Digimon grows differently, his body getting longer, forming a more humanoid shape. His ears seem to shift to his back and duplicate, forming feathery white wings. A stalf wrapped in a blue cloth appears and the cloth wraps around him. A helmet hides his face as orange hair spills over his shoulders and down his back.

**_ANKYLOMON!_ **

**_ANGEMON!_ **

The shell breaks as the angel flies towards Hunk and the dinosaur charges IceDevimon. Hunk screams as he continues to fall through to his death-

“Gotcha!”

Arms wrap around him and hoist him away from the boiling magma. He gasps as he holds on and stares up at the creature who saved him.

“Wha-” Hunk gasps, “Patamon?!”

“Don’t worry, Hunk, everything’s gonna be alright.” The angel smiles, “And I’m Angemon now.”

IceDevimon watches in shock, “WHAT?!”

“TAKE THIS YOU BRUTE!”

The dinosaur jumps into the sky and headbutts the fallen angel Digimon right in the stomach. IceDevimon coughs as he falls to the ground, the dinosaur not far from him.

Hunk looks on in shock, “That must be Armadillomon!”

Angemon nods, “Yes, but she Digivolved Hunk. She’s Ankylomon now.”

Hunk smiles, then turns serious as he faces Angemon, “We gotta free my friends!”

Angemon grunts, “Right!”

He sets Hunk down by the wooden post and flies up so he can get a good look at the chains. The others gasp as they stare at the angel, who pulls back a fist.

“ **HAND OF FATE!** ” Angemon punches, sending a beam of orange energy towards the chains.

But it does nothing.

Ankylomon shouts as she hits the ground, half her side frozen as she glares at IceDevimon, “That all you got, you bully?!”

IceDevimon chuckles, “Nope. Not quite.”

Hunk watches the two battles. IceDevimon keeps blasting Ankylomon back while Angemon’s attacks have next to no effect on the chains. The two end up back to back as Angemon stands on the ground for a few seconds.

Then an idea hits Hunk, making him snap his fingers as he gasps.

He cups his hands and shouts, “GUYS, SWITCH! ANGELS EXIST TO FIGHT DEMONS, THE ANKYLOSAURUS IS A BATTERING RAM! YOU’RE BETTER SUITED FOR DIFFERENT PARTS OF THIS FIGHT!”

The two glance at each other and nod. They swap and charge into their new battles with renewed energy.

“ **TAIL HAMMER!** ” Ankylomon violently swings her tail at the chains, snapping them in half.

The cage she hits is Syakomon’s, who screams as she falls to the ground. The framework snaps from the impact with the ground and in the middle of the mess sits the dazed but mostly unharmed Digimon.

“Oh, sorry.” Ankylomon apologizes.

Syakomon giggles, “‘m fine.”

“ **HAND OF FATE!** ” Angemon fires his blast again, aiming directly for IceDevimon’s chest.

“ **TUNDRA FREEZE!** ” IceDevimon fires a freezing beam from his eyes.

The two forces battle for a while, until Angemon’s attack takes over and IceDevimon takes a fist full of good energy to the face. He hits the ground hard and groans, glaring at the angel. He tries to spread his wings to take to the air again, only to realize with dread-

“I can’t fly.” IceDevimon gulps.

“How do you like me now, tyrant?” Angemon declares, twirling with his staff before lunging with it, “ **ANGEL ROD!** ”

IceDevimon screams and just barely manages to roll away from being hit with it.

Hunk jumps up and down, “YEAH! That’s the way to do it!”

Angemon chases IceDevimon around the lava pits with the rod, trying to strike him as he continues to roll, scramble and whimper away. There’s no where left to run though when IceDevimon rolls himself right into a lava pit. He grabs onto the edge and whimpers as his feet nearly burn.

He stares up at Angemon with fear in his eyes, out right sobbing, “SPARE ME!”

Angemon raidates with ‘are you serious’ energy as he raises his staff and smacks IceDevimon’s hands. He screams as he falls into the lava pit, being consumed by it quickly. Ankylomon finally finishes with getting the cages down and saving the rest of the group.

“Hunk!” Lance screams, running to his best friend.

Hunk nearly toples as Lance jumps into his arms, laughing as he holds him, “I gotcha buddy.”

Keith sprints towards Shiro, eyeing her neck for damage, “Are you alright?”

Shiro nods and settles a hand on his shoulder, “I’m okay, Keith. Thank you.”

Pidge chuckles as she picks up Syakomon, “That was a pretty rough landing for you, huh?”

Syakomon makes a sound of agreement, eyes still spinning in a daze behind her clam shell.

Ankylomon charges into the barrel that housed the still trapped Fractal Code, screaming while Angemon smacks the top open with his rod. The two working together combined destroys the barrel completely. The Fractal Code inside bursts free and fills the sky. Everyone watches in shock and awe as all the crystals still left and the lava pits spit out more Fractal Code.

It all returns to the forest, which fills with bright blue light. Crystals grow from the trees and the smoke from the pits disappears as the lava cools, no longer blocking the sky.

Ankylomon and Angemon glow and turn back into their previous forms of Armadillomon and Patamon.

“Armadillomon! Patamon!” Hunk shouts as he runs to them. He picks the two exhausted Digimon up in his arms and hugs them close, “You two were amazing, but you scared me too.”

Armadillomon blushes and smiles softly, “We only did what needed to be done. It was you who’s words touched our hearts.”

“Yep!” Patamon giggles, “If not for you, we might still be panicking underground!”

Hunk laughs and rubs at his eyes, “And if not for you two, I might not even be here. So I guess we make a good team.”

Armadillomon nods, “Indeed.”

A bright sphere of light appears above the three. Hunk watches in awe as it floats to the ground in front of them, letting the Digimon back on the ground to watch as the light fades and a device similar to a phone is revealed.

With a yellow base, orange grips, it has a black antenna on the top left. At the top centre of the device is a square shaped grey screen with a white circle around it and two orange arrow shaped buttons. Below the screen is a little black button with a white circle inside it, a line and a white dot on top of it. Below the red button is a ring shaped button with two small arrows pointing directly to the left and right from each other.

“What is it?” Patamon gasps.

Hunk picks it up, “I… I think it’s a Digivice.”

Armadillomon turns to Hunk, “It’s ours, Hunk!” She beams as the boys face her, “We’re all partners!”

“And look!” Patamon points upwards, “The sky, Armadillomon! The sky!”

The three look up and gasp in awe. Blue with puffs of pink as an orange sunsets behind two mountains in the distance. Armadillomon rubs at her eyes and smiles while Patamon spins in circles to look at all of it.

“It’s beautiful.” Armadillomon murmurs.

Hunk smiles and pats his partners on their heads, “And I’m gonna make sure you see every sky the Digital World has to offer.”

The three smile at each other, while the gang watch the exchange with grins of their own.

_“Huh, who’d have thought Hunk would be lucky and get two partners for the price of one D3? If you wanna see who gets their partner next, tune into the next Digimon: Digital Monsters.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://fullmetaldude1.tumblr.com/post/175649003627/digimon-paladins-chapter-2-the-angel-and-the Link for the second chapter, please reblog so I can be supported.


	3. Fire With Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Our charming heroes are in the Digital World with a mission to save it, but end up captured right off the bat after skydiving without parachutes. Being the only one not captured, Hunk ends up running into these two Digimon named Patamon and Armadillomon. While they explain what’s going on in the Crystal Forest, the rest of the gang are put on ice by this creepy dude named IceDevimon. After Hunk finds out just how bad the Digimon are being treated by this guy, he decides it’s time to be a hero and save the day. Only to nearly get killed again. Lucky for him, Patamon Digivolved into Angemon to save him and Armadillomon Digivolved into Ankylomon to fight IceDevimon. After swapping out, they beat IceDevimon, freed their friends and looked up at the sky for a while. Doesn’t that just make your heart go all warm and fuzzy?”

The sky turns orange, pink and blue as the sunsets over the grassy land the gang was travelling through. They’d broken through the cover of the Crystal Forest hours ago and were trudging through greenery up to their shoulders. Everyone stayed close, not wanting to be lost in the sea of giant grass. The sounds of birds and crickets filled the air.

Lance yawned, carrying Syakomon in his arms at the back of the group, “Guys, I’m tired, we should stop for the night.”

Keith grunts at the front of the group, using his knife to cut through the worst of the grass, “No way, there’s not enough cover here to protect us. We should keep going.”

Hunk grunts as he swats some grass to the side, Patamon on his shoulder, “Uhh, I’m with Lance on this one, sorry, it is getting pretty late.”

“They’re right, Keith.” Armadillomon pipes up, following along behind Hunk, “I know it’s not dark yet, but we have no idea what could be beyond this field.”

“We don’t know what could be in it either, or what comes out in the Digital World at night.” Pidge huffs, shouldering her backpack anew as she walks in front of Hunk, “I say we keep going for a while longer.”

Shiro sighs and raises her hand, “Okay, let’s stop for a second.”

Everyone pauses and turns to her, Keith looking at her with considerable amounts of concern, “Is something wrong?”

Shiro shakes her head and looks at the group, “I know it’s getting dark and we’re all tired, but I agree with Keith and Pidge. We should keep going, but only a little while longer. We should decide together though, because I don’t think arguing is going to solve this any sooner.”

Lance whines and stamps his foot, “But I’m tired and poor Syakomon’s asleep here!” He lifts the sleeping Digimon and scowls, “We shouldn’t keep going, not right now at least!”

Shiro smiles and shuffles along the path, “Let’s see what I can do to help with that, then.”

Lance blinks at her in confusion.

Shiro reaches Lance and takes Syakomon off his hands and places her on the ground. She stands up and then, much to Lance’s total shock, places her hands on his back and knees. He yelps in shock as Shiro does so, wrapping his arms around her neck by reflex.

Shiro hums, “You’re not as heavy as I expected, so that’s good. You gonna be comfortable with me carrying you like this?”

Lance gulps, face fire red as a rose as he nods, voice breaking, “Yep.”

Pidge slaps her face in the background, “Oh brother.”

Hunk chuckles and picks up Syakomon, holding the clam in his arms while Armadillomon grins.

Keith huffs, “You should make him walk, this isn’t gonna help him, Shiro.”

Shiro looks at him puzzledly as Lance hides his red face and blushing ears in her shoulder, “What do you mean, Keith? He just needs a break and this way we can keep going with the person who wanted to rest the most getting to.”

“What about you, though?” Keith slices another bit of grass in the direction they’ll presumably take, “You won’t be able to run away if you’re too busy carrying him, if a Digimon attacks us.”

“I can help with that.” Armadillomon walks next to Shiro, “If a Digimon gets too close, I can get them away long enough for Shiro to put Lance down and for them to start running.”

“I don’t mind.” Hunk chimes in, “I can carry Syakomon while Shiro looks after Lance.”

Pidge shrugs, “I don’t see the issue and we’re wasting sunlight arguing about it.”

Keith sighs, “Fine.”

He continues to slice the grass in front of them and everyone follows along behind him. Lance calms down slightly as Shiro continues to walk and hold him, clinging to her with the occasional bumby stone she didn’t quite step over.

Lance grins wobbly as he rests his head on her shoulder, “ _Oh my, oh my, oh my, she smells so good._ ”

“Hanging in there, buddy?” Shiro says softly, adjusting her grip on him.

Lance gulps and nods, “Yep. Totally hanging in there, got it all under control, just chillaxing.” He laughs a little and blurts out, “How are you so crazy strong?”

Shiro grins childishly, “Because I’m an anime protagonist.”

Lance chokes on a laugh while Shiro watches him giggle.

Pidge huffs as she walks near Hunk, mimicking in a Shiro-like voice, “Because I’m an anime protagonist.” She rolls her eyes, “She’s stupid strong because she got the best genetics and works to keep them in good shape. Is she trying to flirt with him or something?”

Hunk shrugs, smiling, “I don’t know, but Lance sure isn’t complaining. This is like something outta a dream for him”

Pidge blinks and looks to him, “Can I have blackmail on him then, please?”

Hunk looks around to make sure Lance isn’t listening, too engrossed in his conversation with Shiro to notice and then he grins, “Well…”

Keith grunts as he slices another stalk of grass, cutting their way through the place. He looks up at the sky to find it’s getting more and more dark and looks behind him to see the rest of the gang chattering away without a care in the world.

Did they seriously forget what the hell happened to them not even a whole day ago with IceDevimon? What if something like that happens again? He can’t let them get hurt.

Even if he’s pretty sure they’re not his biggest fans. No biggy, not a lot of people are.

Keith blinks as he looks at the space in front of him, “Guys, wait.”

The others pause as he leans down to look at the grass roots, ignoring as Lance says something about his hair. The stems look a little crushed, but he doesn’t know why. He looks around and sees the slightly crushed stems lead into a path and he stands up, turning towards them.

“Something passed through here, recently.” He points in the direction they took, “There’s crushed stems leading that way,” then he points in the opposite direction, “and that way. I can’t tell which way it went, but it’s not that long gone. We should be careful.”

“Or maybe we should follow it.” Pidge suggests, eyes grinning with curiosity, “Maybe we’ll find some shelter.”

“Or more trouble.” Lance whimpers, “Maybe we can just go back and pretend we never saw this?”

Shiro sets Lance down, grunting once as she does so, then standing back up, “I don’t think there’s time to go back now and it’s just about to get too dark to see our hands in front of our faces. Resting now would be our best bet. Do guys have any food on you?”

The others start rummaging through their pockets frantically, Pidge and Keith ditching their bags to look through them.

Lance groans as his D-3, wallet, phone, a few candy wrappers, a hair clip and a pack of his favourite facemask falls to the ground, “Nothing.”

Hunk frowns as he pulls his D-3, watch, a piece of paper, a wrench, a few small containers with crackers inside them, some bandages accumulate in his hands as Syakomon sleeps on Armadillomon’s shell, “Some crackers are all I’ve got.”

Shiro sighs as she looks in her vest pockets to find a pair of headphones, a music player and the wrapper of a fruit bar there, “You’re doing better than me. Keith?”

Keith shakes his head, a sketch book, a pencil case and a few dollars on the ground around his backpack.

“Bingo!” Pidge cheers.

The others turn to her beaming, “Did you find any food?”

Pidge shakes her head, eyes glued to her computer, fingers typing like lightning, “No, but my laptop is working! We could send someone an email to let them know where we are!”

Lance groans as he puts everything back in his pockets, “What about food? We’re gonna starve here, aren’t we?!”

“We’re not gonna die.” Keith growls, packing things up and shouldering his bag, “Pidge we need to move, come on.”

“But I might not get a signal like this if I so much as move a centimeter!” Pidge argues, continuing to type, “I need to let my Mom know where we are, or she’s gonna freak and call the military!”

“You think she’s not gonna freak when she finds out you’re in some other world with monsters trying to kill us?” Hunk looks at her like she’s gone mad.

“Alright, settle down.” Shiro calls and everyone but Pidge stops to look at her, “It’s gotten dark so we may as well stop here for the night. I’m gonna try to find some food. The rest of you should stay here and rest. Keith, keep an eye out for trouble. Lance, Hunk, try to see if you can make this a sleepable place. I’ll be back soon.”

The others nod as Shiro turns around and walks through the path with the crushed stems. Lance pulls some of the grasses out of the ground and starts weaving them together in a sort of blanket. Hunk extracts some rocks and tosses them away to create more comfortable spaces, while Armadillomon rolls into a ball and flattens the grass in the area into a softer bed. Pidge hits send for her email and packs up her laptop while Syakomon and Patamon continue to sleep next to her, snuggling up. Keith looks down the path that Shiro took, then looks up it.

He doesn’t like this, but what choice do they have?

Lance hums in satisfaction as he finishes his little grass blanket, “There we go.”

He folds it up like a pillow and puts it next to the other 4 he made. He leans back on his, finding it surprisingly comfy and looks up at the dusk sky. He closes his eyes and falls asleep quickly.

Hunk chuckles as he watches him rest, holding a stone in his hands, “There he goes.”

Pidge chuffles up to him, yawning as she does, “I guess.”

Hunk gives her a small smile, “Sleepy?”

“I just need a power nap.” Pidge closes her eyes as she leans against Hunk.

He blushes a little as her breathing evens out and she snuggles him more. Hunk hesitantly wraps an arm around her shoulders to hold him to her as he lays down. Pidge goes with him, happy and resting. Hunk puts his other arm behinds him and closes his eyes.

Armadillomon looks at the two sleeping Digimon cozied up together and finds herself rubbing her eyes. She is pretty tired. She curls up around Syakomon and Patamon and closes her eyes.

Keith watches the others fall asleep and feels annoyance bubble up alongside the urge to rub his eyes. He can’t fall asleep, not now, not when Shiro’s still not back and the others are down for the count. He can’t let his guard down.

Keith adjusts the grip on his knife and turns around in a slow circle.

He hears a russling behind the grass and tenses, “Shiro?”

No response. He hears something move through the air behind him and turns around to swing his blade-

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The rest of the gang wake up, screaming as well while Keith stares the squirming little… something on the ground. It’s bipedal, he thinks, with red skin, a fireball on his tail and some kind of armor on his forehead and wrists. He has a tuft of yellow fur on his chest, claws on his 4 toes and 5 fingers, blue eyes and a fireball from the armor on his forehead. His hair looks like a lion’s mane almost.

“Who are you?!” Keith demands.

The creature just keeps saying, “Ouch, ouch, ouch!” over and over while holding it’s forehead, then it gives Keith watery eyes, “No one told me humans could be so mean, that wasn’t fair!”

“What is that thing?” Lance and Hunk scream as they hold each other.

Pidge hides behind them, “I don’t know, but I don’t like it!”

Armadillomon, Patamon and Syakomon run up to stand with Keith, Syakomon chiming in, “Leave this to us Digimon, Keith!”

Keith nods and steps back-

“Stop!”

Shiro bursts through the grass after the creature and stands in front of it, arms and legs spread wide to protect it, “It’s okay, this is Coronamon! He’s a good Digimon! He’s the one who made the tracks earlier today and wants to offer us shelter in his home for the night.”

The others blink at Shiro and the Digimon in confusion, “Huh?”

Shiro kneels down and gently takes Coronamon’s hands, “I’m really sorry, we’re just lost and really scared, Coronamon, no one did it to hurt you on purpose.”

Coronamon shakes his head and grins through his tears, “That’s okay, Shiro, I know a big strong Digimon like me can be scary! Especially when I’m super fast too, I don’t think the guy who hit me even saw me coming!”

Keith shakes his head, “I, I didn’t. I couldn’t tell if you were gonna hurt us or not.”

“Not to worry, friends.” Coronamon jumps to his feet and grins, “I’ve got just the place for you all to stay, so just follow me! It’s not far, I promise!”

The group all look at each other, hesitantly.

* * *

The others look around the surprisingly large space in awe.

It’s a house made from straw and wood, with surprisingly strong walls and beams that kept them sheltered from the elements. There’s a fireplace in the middle of the room and an opening at the top of the roof for smoke to escape. There’s grass woven blankets like the ones Lance made to sleep with, rolled up next to mini stacks of hay to soften the ground.

Just next to the fireplace, Coronamon stands proudly with hands on his hips, “Welcome to my humble abode Humans, I hope you like your stay!”

Keith grunts as he looks around. There’s only two exits, including the hole in the roof and the one they came in here with.

“It’s lovely Coronamon.” Shiro bows a little, “Thanks for having us.”

“No trouble at all, Shiro!” Coronamon giggles, “I love humans and I always wanted to know more about them! I already know all the legends about the DigiDestined, so this is an honor for me!”

Pidge and Syakomon’s eyes brighten, “You know the legends of the DigiDestined?”

“Indeed I do!” Coronamon giggles and jumps.

He does two back flips before landing on the rod over his fire and snaps his fingers. The fire lights beneath him and he jumps to stand in front of it, rolling through the air once. He folds his arms and grins.

“Get under those covers humans, because it’s time you learned a nasty history lesson.” Coronamon chuckles darkly.

Hunk and Lance gulp and hold their Digimon partners close, wrapping a blanket over their shoulders. Pidge settles in next to them, taking her bag off and wraps herself in a blanket while leaning against Hunk. Shiro sits on the ground next to Lance and curls her arms around her knees. Lance grins and pulls out of his blanket to grab another one. He wraps it around Shiro’s shoulders with a soft grin. Shiro smiles in appreciation and nods her thanks.

As Shiro turns her head away, Lance grins savagely at Keith, who was standing next to the entrance. Keith ignored the look and kept one eye on the night outside.

Coronamon put his hands together and glances at the fire behind him, “In the beginning, the Digital World was peaceful.”

The flames splutter and out of them appears a orb of fire. The others stare in shock as the flames turn into vague shapes of small Digimon that travelled around the hut.

“Digimon learned about the world they had been born into as the great creator, King Drasil intended.” Other flames form the vague shapes of villages and mini societies forming, “King Drasil watched over his people he loved and hoped in his heart that he could always do best for them.”

“So where do the DigiDestined feature in this?” Pidge questions in her blanket burrito.

Syakomon hushes her.

“Before a hero can rise, there must be a villain to vanquish.” Coronamon holds up a finger and out of it, shoots a blue flame, “The Digital World’s first trial came to us in the form of a virus.”

The blue flame struck a Digimon down and turned it’s flames blue too. There was a cry of pain and then the blue Digimon attacked the other red Digimon. Upon contact, the Digimon turned blue as well and soon the hut was filled with the cries of pained Digimon as the blue flames spread.

“This virus turned our brothers and sisters into uncontrollable beasts, only wanting to grow stronger and destroy each other.” The red flames murge into the form of a large humanoid Digimon, “King Drasil went to work trying to create a vaccine that would save us all but it was useless.” The flames then formed another orb of red. “Then he learned of another world that was just beginning to understand and use Digital Power.”

“The Human World!” Syakomon gasps.

“King Drasil found a way to explore this world in secret and observed the heroic acts of a few special humans. Impressed by their hearts,” The fire spits out 5 vaguely human shapes, “King Drasil brought them to the Digital World, where their strength of character reached the hearts of his poisoned people.” The new silhouettes touched the blue Digimon and they turned back to red, “The legendary humans and their tamed Digimon became known as the DigiDestined and destroyed the virus at its source, sealing it and the incurable Digimon in the Dark Area.”

The blue Digimon assimilate into a ball of blue flames that was then surrounded by a layer of red flames. The figures of the DigiDestined and their partners stood above the orb.

“From then on, all knew that should the DigiDestined ever be needed again,” Coronamon smiles up at the figures with tears in his eyes, “we in the Digital World could count on our human friends.”

The flames return to the fire, all of them a gentle red. The gang minus Keith clap and cheer for Coronamon, who blushes slightly and bows deeply.

“That was amazing, Coronamon!” Lance cheers, flames flickering over his excited face, “How’d you learn to control the flames so well? How’d you make them turn blue?”

Pidge adjusts her glasses, “It’s just a matter of getting the fire hot en-” She muffles a yawn with her hand, “ough.”

Shiro smiles and stands up, “I think we should hit the hay. We’ve had an exciting day.”

Pidge pouts, “But I’m not tired and I wanna learn more.”

Shiro chuckles and picks Pidge up, blanket burrito and all, then carries her over to a stack of hay. She pulls her blanket off herself and tucks it under Pidge’s head and neck for support.

Shiro reaches for her glasses, “Get some shut eye Pidge, we’re gonna need it for tomorrow.”

Pidge groans and closes her eyes as Shiro places her glasses next to the makeshift pillow. She goes back to where Lance and Hunk were lying on the ground, Syakomon using Lance’s right arm as a pillow, Armadillomon tucked under Hunk’s left arm and Patamon curling up on his belly. She smiles and grabs her phone to take a quick picture, then she grabs Pidge’s bag and hauls it to where Pidge is sleeping.

Shiro wipes her brow and looks to Keith, “Okay, Keith, you should get some shut eye too.”

Keith narrows his eyes at her and then walks up to her. Coronamon giggles and trots to where he’s practically in the middle of the two, so he can observe them better.

Keith inspects her face and frowns, Coronamon looking at him when he speaks, “No. You look exhausted, you should rest.”

“Keith, you’ve been acting as bodyguard all night and evening long.” Shiro gives him a soft smile while Coronamon stares at her, “If you don’t get any shut eye, I might have to carry you tomorrow.”

Keith scowls and Coronamon flicks his head Keith’s way, “Okay then, we’ll take turns. One of us keeps an eye out while the other goes to sleep.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a coin, making Coronamon go starry eyed, “Just so it’s fair, we’ll flip.”

Shiro shrugs as Coronamon continues to marvel at the coin, “Okay then, if it’s tails, I’ll take the first watch.”

Keith nods, “Heads, I’ll take it. We’ll swap out whenever we feel like we’re going to pass out.”

He flips the coin in the air and Coronamon excitedly leaps after it. The two gasp as the little Digimon inspects it like it’s buried treasure, looking at both sides, running his fingers over it.

“Coronamon!” The two snap.

Coronamon flinches and giggles bashfully, rubbing the back of his head, “Sorry, but it looked so shiny in the fire light, I had to grab it, plus it’s a human artifact!”

The two sigh and smile at the Digimon. Taking that as permission, Coronamon rolls onto his belly and continues to fiddle with the coin. Keith looks to Shiro, comes to a decision and goes to sit down near the entrance, removing his bag. Shiro looks at him in confusion.

Keith gestures to the entrance, “I sleep better with the wind at my back. Wake me up when you need a break.”

Shiro beams.

* * *

_Laughter like bells rang in his ears while the wind whipped his hair all over the place, hiding his view as a girl called out, “Come on, Keke!”_

_He felt himself giggle and toddle along after the pretty voice, even if he couldn’t see her, “Comin’, comin’ Tata!"_

_He tripped over something and fell down face first in the mud. Shock and pain ran through his body and he cried out, sobbing loudly, waiting for someone, anyone to come get him, please come get him, "Help!"_

_"Hush, hush." Gentle hands, not much bigger than his own, picked him up from the mud and hugged him, "It's okay, Keke, you just fell over. There, there." The pretty voice was back and the hands were rubbing his back, "You're okay."_

_He felt himself stop crying and someone whipped his eyes and the mud off his face, "Let's go back to our mommies now, okay?"_

_He sniffled as he continued to cry a little, "Okay, Tata."_

_The two walked for a while, hand in hand. The pretty voice sang a lullaby he didn't know well, but it made him feel better. Soon he had stopped crying and was okay again, just holding Tata's hand and knowing everything would be alright. He looks up at Tata’s face..._

Keith rubbed his eyes as he looked over the entrance, " _A dream?_ "

It had to be. He wasn't 4 years old anymore, or however young he was when he was playing with that girl. Figures he can't remember her name or face as soon as he awakens. He just remembers feeling safe with her, whoever she was.

He looks to the side and finds the rest of the gang sleeping the day’s adventures off, under the various blankets of grass and on the piles of hay. Most of them are snoring the days’ adventures off. But he can’t see Shiro anywhere.

He unfolds his arms and gets to his feet, looking around the clearing, “Shiro?”

No response.

Keith looks to his side and jumps when he sees Coronamon staring at him, “What?”

Coronamon, sitting cross legged and head in his hands as he looks up at Keith, chuckles, “Shiro cares a lot about everyone huh?”

Keith blinks, “I guess?”

Coronamon laughs, “She’s kinda like a mom then, huh?”

Keith gapes at him, “What? No, she’s just a kid like the rest of us, Coronamon. She’s not their mother and just as afraid as everyone else must feel sometimes.”

Coronamon tilts his head, “But how do you know?”

“Because I’m scared too.” Keith sighs and leans back, “I can’t remember a time when I was more scared than I was when I heard IceDevimon talking about eating her.” He grinds his teeth, “I was ready for murder.”

“You care a lot about Shiro, huh?” Coronamon gives him an informed smile.

Keith looks at him in confusion, “Kinda? We just met today.”

“But you care a lot about making sure that Shiro’s okay and happy. That’s why you agreed to take a nap, to avoid the fight that would just stress Shiro out more.” Coronamon looks up at the stars as he talks, “You do care, though you act all prickly like a Togemon.”

Keith stares at him, then sighs, “I’m sorry.”

Coronamon blinks at him in confusion, “What?”

“I’m sorry for hitting you earlier. I panicked and I thought you were going to hurt us. I didn’t want to risk the others getting hurt.” Keith looks up at the sky as he says this new bit, noticing that there are 3 moons in the sky, one red, the other blue and finally a yellow moon, “This world is so new and so confusing, you never know what’s going to happen next. We don’t know if we’ll meet someone like IceDevimon, or if they’ll be like Syakomon.”

Coronamon stares at him in shock, then his eyes fill with tears and he jumps, “OH Keith!”

Keith cries out in shock as Coronamon jumps into his arms, rubbing his teary face against Keith’s cheek. The Digimon sniffles, “That was so moving, no one’s ever said sorry for hitting me before!” He wipes his eyes and looks at Keith with a watery smile, “You’re officially my favourite human from now on!”

Keith blinks rapidly and fumbles to pat Coronamon on the back for comfort, “Uhh, I’m honoured?”

Coronamon grins and wraps his arms around Keith’s neck to hug him. Keith hesitantly continues to pat his back, gradually relaxing more. Coronamon’s so warm and… hugging him really isn’t that horrible. Though in general he doesn’t enjoy hugs, this is relatively nice.

He hears a twig snap, “I’m glad you two are bonding.”

Keith turns his head to see Shiro standing there, the beginning of bags forming under her eyes.

Coronamon turns into an excited puppy when he sees her and uses Keith’s thighs to jump, “SHIRO!”

Keith huffs as he feels like his legs are being semi crushed and watches as Shiro catches the Digimon in her arms and giggles. What the-

“Well, what do I deserve this for?” Shiro smiles at Coronamon, an arm around his back and one under his legs.

“Keith said he’s sorry for hitting me earlier and now he’s my favourite hero!” Coronamon then stage whispers, “He cares a lot about you too Shiro, so get some sleep, please!”

Keith flushes, “Coronamon!”

Shiro giggles and yawns, “Well, since you asked so nicely Coronamon, I’ll do just that.” She walks into the hut and smiles at Keith as she passes, Coronamon curling up in her arms like a cat, “Hope you slept well Keith. Night.”

Keith watches her lay down with the others and stretches, then stands up, “Night Shiro.”

He walks into the open night air and looks around the almost silent and dark forest. He hears crickets chirp, or something similar to them, kicking up a fuss in the night as the stars and dark sky give the differently coloured moons a background to stand out against.

How could Coronamon read him so well? He seems like a excitable puppy, rather than someone who does that much thinking and reading of other people. But seems he and the rest of the Digital World still has surprises to share. And why did he dream about that time so long ago now? He hasn’t thought about his childhood in years, let alone the bit that he can barely remember before it all fell apart. Keith almost forgot there was someone who actually came back for him during that time.

Or was that something he made up just to keep him from going crazy as a kid?

The ground shakes.

Keith gasps and looks in the direction where a bunch of birds burst from the tree. Oh no, no, no!

He runs back into the hut and shouts, “GUYS, WAKE UP!”

Shiro opens her eyes blurrily and rubs at them tiredly, “Keith?”

Keith sprints past her and shakes Hunk awake, “We gotta move! Something’s heading our way!”

Coronamon continues to sleep in Shiro’s arms, who gasps and tries shaking him awake, “Coronamon, get up! We need to leave!”

Coronamon opens his eyes slowly, “Wha-”

The ground shakes again, much closer and louder this time. There’s a mighty roar that wakes everyone else up.

“ **OYAJI PUNCH!** ”

The sound of snapping wood fills the air and the hut starts caving in.

Keith grabs his art bag, “GET OUT!”

Everyone screams and scrambles to their feet, Pidge grabbing her bag last minute. THe cracking wood reaches the entrance before they make it.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Lance cries out.

Keith grunts and dashes towards where Shiro is holding Coronamon. He takes her from his hands and throws him like a basketball for the entrance. Coronamon shrieks as he travels through the air and gets out just before the rest of the hut comes down on the kids. Coronamon looks behind him and screams when he sees no one else made it out and his home in ruins.

“NO!” Coronamon dashes towards the rubble and starts shifting through it, “No, no, no-”

He finds a red clothed arm and pulls it from the rubble, pulling Keith out of it. He coughs and sits up, “What caused that?”

Coronamon looks behind them and trembles as he points up, “Th-that!”

Keith looks in the same direction and looks at the giant bomb with muscular arms and legs, wearing red sunglasses, red and yellow boots and gloves, blazing red eyebrows and a bomb wick on top of his head, “What is that?”

“That’s BomberNanimon! He’s a Champion level, Invader type Digimon. Known for wrecking parties, you don’t wanna be around when he throws his OYAJI Punch.”

“ **BOMBER!** ” BomberNanimon tosses a bomb in their direction.

Keith picks Coronamon up and runs into the forest. The two duck under some bushes as a few more explosions go off.

Keith pulls apart some of the leafs to look, “We have to get the others out of there!”

Coronamon looks with him, “But how? One of us can’t do it all by himself, plus there’s BomberNanimon to consider! I know I‘m not strong enough to stop him!”

Keith looks around and sees a decently sized branch. He ditches his bag, picks the branch up and swings around to wack the tree behind him 3 times.

“Wahhh!” Coronamon shouts, hands going to his mouth, “Have you lost it, why are you hitting the tree, what did it ever do to you?!”

Keith grunts as he turns around and raises the stick high, “Dig the others out while I keep that thing busy!”

He shouts as he takes a running start and uses the stick like a jumping pole to get over the trees. Coronamon screams as he watches Keith run for the Digimon, stick held between both of his hands in anticipation for a fight.

Keith runs around the bubble, picking up a piece and throwing it, “Hey, over here!”

The piece of rubble hits BomberNanimon’s forehead, just above his eyebrows. BomberNanimon pauses in his screaming to look at Keith, who tosses another piece of the rubble at his sunglasses.

BomberNanimon snarls and grabs another bomb, “ **BOMBER!** ”

He throws it towards Keith, who stands ready with the stick at his side. He swings it back and then swings it forward, hitting the oncoming bomb with everything he’s got. It goes back towards BomberNanimon, exploding in front of his face.

He screams and covers his eyes, stumbling as he does.

Keith turns to the trees, “Coronamon, hurry!”

Coronamon stops staring at Keith and does as he’s asked. He sprints for the rubble and starts digging through it.

“Shiro?!” Coronamon shouts as he digs, “Lance, Pidge, Hunk, anyone down there?!” He starts using his legs as he uses his hands, “Armadillomon, Syakomon, Patamon answer!”

Oh no, no, no, no, they can’t be dead, they can’t be-

“Here!” Someone shouts from under some rubble.

Coronamon jumps and goes digging to that spot, “Who’s there! Is anyone with you?!”

“It’s me, Pidge!” The voice shouts, “Hunk’s with me, but he’s passed out! Patamon has gone off to try to find the others and we can’t find Armadillomon anywhere!”

Coronamon whimpers, “We could really use her at a time like this.”

Yeah, if Armadillomon were here, all of them would’ve been out ages ago. Stupid, stupid useless Coronamon, don’t think like that! You gotta get them out, you gotta!

He digs and finally he starts to see an opening forming, “I’M COMING, JUST A LITTLE MORE!”

Coronamon sees Pidge holding Hunk’s head in her lap, her bag at her side and tears running down her face. He reaches his hand in, “Grab it!”

“Hunk first!” Pidge shouts, trying to heave him up, “We need to get him out!”

Coronamon digs and digs and digs, only to find a beam he can’t move holding Hunk down. He pushes it and looks behind him at Pidge.

“Come on, help me!” He shouts.

Pidge scrambles to join him, pulling on her backpack in the process and the two heave and huff to get the beam off of Hunk. They manage to move it as more explosions go off in Keith’s general direction. Pidge runs back to Hunk and grabs him by the shoulders, starting to drag him back away from the rubble. Coronamon grabs his legs to help and the two get him to the bushes.

“I’m gonna go back!” Coronamon sprints for the rubble again.

“Not without me!” Pidge shouts, chasing after him.

The two of them continue to steadily bring everyone out from the rubble. Lance and Syakomon come first, then Lance helps them dig as Syakomon splashes Hunk with water and tries to tend to his injuries. They find Armadillomon trying to roll a passed out Patamon to the surface, who Pidge and Lance carry to safety. All that’s left is Shiro.

“Shiro!” Coronamon, Pidge, Lance and Armadillomon shout.

Nothing back.

Lance’s eyes fill with tears, “No, no, she can’t be-”

“Don’t say it!” Pidge screams, crying as she runs around the rubble, “Shiro answer me, this isn’t funny!”

“Guys!”

The others gasp and run to the sound, “SHIRO!”

They pull it apart and Shiro’s hand manages to get out. Lance, Pidge and Coronamon pull as hard as they can while Armadillomon digs out the rest of Shiro’s body. They heave her from the rubble and into both Lance and Pidge’s arms.

“Where’s Keith?!” Shiro looks around in confusion, “What about Hunk and the Digimon?”

“Keith’s keeping BomberNanimon busy while we got everyone else out!” Coronamon shouts, then looks to the forest, “Come on, let’s go!”

The others begin to move-

“ **OYAJI PUNCH!** ”

A shout fills the air as Keith soars through it. Covered in dirt, scratch marks and bruises, looking limp as the stick falls from his hands, Keith’s figure passes through the red moon as he travels through the air

Coronamon and Shiro’s eyes widen in fear, “KEITH!”

Data erupts from the rubble and forms into an egg around Coronamon. The egg rises into the air as the others watch in awe. The sun begins to rise over the treetops.

**_CORONAMON!_ **

**_DIGIVOLVE TOO…_ **

He grows in size, going onto all fours. His yellow tuft of fur grows to cover his chest and head. Wraps of dark material like armour go around his ankles, thighs, head and tail. Flames brust from the white and red armour attached to the dark material. Wings sprout from the Digimon’s sides.

**_FIRAMON!_ **

Out of the egg appears the winged lion like Digimon in all his glory as the sun fully breaches the horizon. He catches Keith on his back and flies them down to the bush where the others are all hiding. Shiro forces herself to her feet to meet the Digimon. As he lowers himself down, she heaves Keith from his back and into his own arms.

“Will he be okay?” Shiro lowers herself and Keith to the ground, holding him in her lap.

“If he’s strong enough to make me Digivolve into Firamon, then he’ll survive.” He nuzzles the top of Shiro’s head, “You care for him while I send this bomb boy to oblivion.”

Shiro nods and pats his nose, “Go get ‘em.”

_(Kick It Up by Paul Gordan starts playing)_

Firamon grins and takes off into the sky. BomberNanimon marches through the trees again from where Keith managed to force him back. He gives a battle cry when he sees the Digimon flying towards him.

“ **BOMBER!** ” BomberNanimon tosses a bomb towards Firamon.

Firamon growls and focuses power into his forehead, then unleashes it in the form of a flaming bomb, “ **FIRA BOMB!** ”

The different bombs meet in the middle, creating a massive explosion that rocks the trees. Firamon flies through it and tackles BomberNanimon to the ground.

“I’m gonna make you pay for hurting my favourite human!” Firamon roars in his face.

BomberNanimon snarls and pulls back his fist, “ **OYAJI PUNCH!** ”

Firamon takes an uppercut to the jaw and back flips to get out of range for another attack. He flaps his wings to gain some height, then an idea strikes him. He continues to fly, higher and higher and higher until he’s flying in front of the sun.

The others shield their eyes, trying to look at him.

Keith grunts, “What is he doing?”

BomberNanimon groans as he tries to look at Firamon.

Pidge gasps, the sunlight swirling in her glasses, then she looks at BomberNanimon, “Surprise attack!”

“ **FLAME DIVE!** ” Firamon charges from the sky, his body engulfed in flames as he dives, dives, dives-

And hits BomberNanimon dead on. The violent Digimon screams as the fuse on top of his head goes off and he explodes. The blast sends winds that throw everything everywhere, except for Firamon, who flies against the winds to hit the ground. He trots over to where Keith is staring at him in awe.

“Firamon, thank you.” Keith murmurs, “You saved me.”

Firamon chuckles and nuzzles Keith’s head, “My pleasure, partner.”

Firamon glows and starts to shrink down. Keith holds the slowly shrinking Digimon in his arms, smiling when the glow fades to reveal Coronamon sleeping soundly.

A bright sphere of light appears above the two. Keith smiles softly as he grabs the light with one hand, after shuffling Coronamon into sleeping into the crook of his arm. The light fades to reveal a device that looks similar to a phone.

With a white base, red grips, it has a black antenna on the top left. At the top centre of the device is a square shaped grey screen with a black circle around it and two arrow shaped buttons. Below the screen is a little red button with a white circle inside it, a line and a white dot on top of it. Below the red button is a ring shaped button with two small arrows pointing directly to the left and right from each other.

Keith holds the D3 to his chest and smiles softly.

Shiro stands and grabs Keith’s art bag, “Need a lift?”

Keith shakes his head and stands, wrapping an arm around Coronamon’s back and another under his legs, “I’d rather hold him right now.”

Shiro nods in understanding and looks to the rising sun, “Well guys, are we gonna stay here to sleep, or look for another place?”

Lance yawns, “I’m not sticking around to get blown to bits again.”

Syakomon groans, “But Lancey, everyone’s still tired.”

Pidge slumps against Hunk, “Nothing could make me move at this point. Don’t try it.”

Hunk wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls Armadillomon and Patamon into his lap, “Sleep now, run from monsters trying to kill us later.”

Pidge flushes, but settles against Hunk’s side.

Keith shrugs, not even trying to stiffen a yawn as he goes next to the tree to slump down, “No arguments here.”

Shiro settles down next to him and then smiles up at Lance, “Then you get first watch, if you’re ready to leave.”

“Wha-” Lance gapes.

Shiro, conveniently, falls asleep then, slumping her head against Keith’s shoulder.

Keith laughs softly and rests his own head next to hers, “You heard the lady. Make sure we don’t die.”

Lance growls at the two, then huffs and looks to Syakomon, “Can you believe they can sleep here after that, Syako-”

Syakomon snores as she dozes in Pidge’s lap.

Lance gapes.

_“Looks like Lance didn’t have the best luck today, but oh well, at least Keith has a partner now. Wonder if anyone else on the team will have partners. To find out, tune into the next Digimon: Digital Monsters.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://fullmetaldude1.tumblr.com/post/176122341897/digimon-paladins-chapter-3-fire-with-wings Link for the third chapter, please reblog so I can be supported.


	4. Forest Saviour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The gang have been walking for a good few miles now and Lance whines enough to convince Shiro to set up camp for the night. Pidge sends of an email to her mother while Keith beats up a suspicious looking Digimon, who it turns out just wants to help them. Coronamon takes them back to his hut, where he tells them the story of the first DigiDestined. Shiro and Keith have a spat about who gets night watch, which Keith loses because obviously. Then he and Coronamon have a bonding moment and it looks like everyone’s off to nap city until BomberNanimon shows up. With everyone trapped under the rubble, it’s up to Keith to distract BomberNanimon while Coronamon digs up the others. But when Keith went flying, so did Firamon who turned BomberNanimon into itty bitty pieces!”

The gang are walking through the forest that Coronamon’s hut once resided in by midday. The sounds of odd birds fill the air and a distant train whistle sounds overhead.

Pidge sniffles and groans as she rubs her nose, “I officially regret being in the Digital World.”

Coronamon whines as he walks beside her, “Aww, come on Pidge, it’s really not that bad!”

Pidge glares at him, “It is when you have hate the outdoors and are surrounded by nothing but sunburn and poison oak.”

Keith looks over his shoulder where his art bag hangs, towards a small flower in the distance, as a tiny butterfly lands on, “I like it out here. It’s quiet.”

\Lance huffs at the back of the group, “Too quiet if you ask me. I feel like something is gonna show up out of nowhere and bite me.”

Syakomon hums as she hops along beside him, “That’s a pretty distinct possibility, since there are so many Digimon who can do just that.”

Lance groans and bends forward, his upper body hanging limp and useless, “That doesn’t make me feel better, Syakomon, thanks.”

Syakomon giggles, “You’re welcome!”

Hunk chuckles as Armadillomon walks at his feet and Patamon flies near his head, “Honestly I’d be more scared if Syakomon said we were _un_ likely to get bitten while in the Digital World.”

Armadillomon hums, “If that were the case, then we would be dealing with the unknown.”

“And that would be super scary!” Patamon laughs.

Shiro smiles at the others, then picks something up at the edge of her hearing. She looks in the direction of a sound and laughs, turning to the others, “Guys, I hear running water! This way!”

The others rejoice and start running, with Pidge falling to the back of the pack as the others pick up on the sound. She huffs and puffs, holding onto her backpack straps as she runs as fast as she can to catch up with the others. When she arrives, everyone is marvelling.

A beautiful river, water not so powerful as to frighten, but rough enough to create some waves. There are a million shiney stones at the bottom of the river, with the land around it looking like a rather peaceful field. There’s fruit filled trees on the edge of the clearing and the sun shining down on all of them.

“Whoa.” Keith murmurs, putting his art bag down.

“It looks like paradise!” Coronamon giggles, “I’m going to grab the Meat Apples!”

He runs into the clearing, jumping clean over the river. Everyone gasps as he makes a perfect landing and then starts jumping to try to grab the fruit.

“I guess it’s safe then?” Hunk blinks at the others in confusion.

Armadillomon smiles, “I’d say so. Let’s go!”

“Yeah!” Patamon giggles, “I’ll help you with those Meat Apples, Coronamon!”

“Yahoo!” Lance laughs as he runs into the river, kicking it about and having fun, “Take this, evil Digimon!”

Syakomon laughs as she hops into the river, getting splashed as she enters, “You’ll never defeat me puny human! **WATER PRESSURE!** ”

She shoots a low powered blast of water at Lance, that knocks him off his feet and lands him in the river. He groans as he lands on his back, “Oh no, I am slain! Won’t you finish me off?”

“Nah. Time to conquer the rest of the Digital World.” Syakomon giggles as she hops out of the river.

“Awww, come on, Sy, wasn’t I some sort of tough opponent who needed to be defeated?” Lance gestures to himself, arms raised to show off his muscles.

Syakomon snorts, “Not in the slightest, sorry Lance! You’re gonna need to get a lot tougher to beat me, let alone King Drasil!”

Lance nods, raises his fists, “Right! Round 2 then!”

Syakomon giggles, “I suppose there’s no rest for the wicked then.”

As the two continue to play in the water while on one bank of the river, Keith and Hunk manage to catch up with their Digimon. Keith gives Hunk his jacket to use as a hamak to catch the Meat Apples Patamon drops, and puts Coronamon on his shoulders to pick them easier. They head to a spot near the river to wash them in the water.

“So, what are Meat Apples like?” Hunk asks.

“They’re amazing!” Coronamon giggles, tail swishing behind him, “Each one tastes like a different kind of meat, you can never tell what you’re going to get until you take a bite. But you should never eat them raw or they’re going to be disgusting!”

“I’ll get a fire going then.” Keith stands up, “You guys okay to keep washing?”

Hunk, Coronamon and Patamon nod. Armadillomon walks towards him.

“I’ll help you cut down some firewood, if we need to.” She offers, “I won’t be much help washing the apples.”

Keith nods, “I’ll bring her back safe.”

“Stay close!” Shiro calls from across the river, “Don’t wander too far and if you need us, scream!”

Keith waves and he and Armadillomon disappear into the foliage.

Pidge watches everyone do things and sighs as she puts her backpack on the floor. She pulls out her laptop and tries to get some kind of connection going, but nothing seems to work no matter what she does.

“Ugh, no signal.” She pouts.

Shiro chuckles and offers her water bottle, “I’m sure you’ll find one soon, Pidge. You managed to find it earlier and sent your Mom an email, so I’m sure you’ll find the signal again.”

Pidge smiles and takes the water bottle from Shiro, “Thanks. I hope she’s okay.”

“You get your toughness from somewhere.” Shiro ruffles Pidge’s hair.

Pidge smirks, “Yeah.”

Then her laptop gives a ping. The two blink in shock as Pidge starts to get a signal. A very weak one.

“I need to see if I can find a stronger one!” Pidge jumps up, grabbing her laptop as she starts wandering around the area.

The signal gets weaker, the closer she gets to the river, while it gets stronger when she gets closer to the tree line. Pidge looks at the daunting forest, then looks behind her.

Keith and Armadillomon are back, a pile of firewood and twigs nearby. Keith sharpens some with his knife, presumably for sticking the apples on while Shiro helps with crafting a circle of stones from the river to keep the fire contained. Syakomon is blasting the the apples with a final bit of water while Lance spins them in the palm of his hand. Hunk and Patamon chatter as they wash the last of the apples.

So Pidge calls out, “Bathroom, don’t follow me!”

And sprints into the forest. If she manages to figure this out, she’ll be able to tell her mother more about what’s going on. The first email she managed to send was rushed and short, little more than a “don’t worry” note. That’s not going to help the situation now that she thinks about it, but it was the only thing she could get out when she had the signal before. But now it’s getting stronger, the further in she goes and she’s almost got it at enough strength to send another email-

When she tips on a root and falls flat on her face.

Pidge snarls, sits up and shouts, “THAT’S ENOUGH! I’VE HAD IT WITH THIS STINKING FOREST IN THIS STINKING WORLD!”

She gets to her feet and kicks the root she tripped on-

“OW!” The root pulls back and Pidge scrambles as a Digimon comes out from the bush next to her, “What’s the big idea, kicking me like that?!”

The Digimon looked almost exactly like Palmon. A green body, walking on two legs and coming up to about Pidge’s shoulder, with spikes on her back and a tail. Her feet look like roots and her hands are shaped like giant leaves with 3 purple tipped fingers. She has black eyes and a big purple flower on her head.

Pidge shakes her head and scowls, “Maybe you shouldn’t have tripped me first!”

The Digimon flaps her arms, “You should’ve watched where you’re going, the Digital World is a dangerous place and you’re clearly not from around here! Why, if I were a meaner Digimon, I’d have used my powers on you by now!”

Pidge kicks grass in the Digimon’s direction, “Go ahead, I’ve had it up to here!” She throws her hand up, “With death around every corner and monsters not even letting us get a good night’s sleep! Go ahead and attack me, I’m sure I’ve faced worse!”

The Digimon roars, “ **NEMESIS IVY!** ”

The Digimon’s fingers extend and wraps around Pidge. She tries to fight them off and finds her ballance going haywire. The world starts spinning and her head feels like it’s full of cotton and, what the hell was she doing earlier?

“Maybe next time you should be careful what you wish for.” Someone says.

She feels anger bubble up and with it, some clarity; she’s Pidge Gunderson and this is the Digimon who tripped her up.

Pidge snarls and jumps to attack her, “Take this!”

Pidge manages to land a punch to her face. The Digimon shouts, then turns on her to punch Pige as well. The two continue to wrestle, not really noticing as they start to head towards a small hill. Pidge is the first one who trips down it, grabbing onto the Digimon and dragging her down with her. The two scream as they tumble down, down, down and hit the ground hard enough to bounce away from each other twice.

“Ahh.” Pidge groans and looks around.

She’d fallen into some kind of pit. The walls are too steep for her to climb, but it’s pretty wide, so she might be able to make a running start if she tried.

Pidge sits up, wincing when she realizes she landed funny on her left arm. It hurts to move all over, but not as bad as there. She pulls back her sleeve to see it looking an angry red, like the beginnings of a mark.

“Ow.” The Digimon whimpers.

Pidge turns her head to see her opponent massaging her left leg. It’s turning purple, like a bruise and doesn’t look okay. She tries to stand on it, but it doesn’t hold her weight.

“You’re injured.” Pidge stands up to walk over to her.

The Digimon snarls and elongates her fingers, “Stay back! Don’t try to attack me like this, or you’ll really regret it!”

“I won’t!” Pidge holds up her hands in surrender, wincing when it makes her injury pulse with pain, “Look, we’re both hurt and we’re trapped, it’d be pointless to try to fight each other right now.”

The Digimon huffs and folds her arms, “I’m not taking my eye off you.”

Pidge shrugs, “Fair, I won’t take my eyes off you either.”

She glances around to try to find a way out while observing the Digimon out the corner of her eye. Something really nags at her and then she realizes she doesn’t even know it’s name.

“I’m Pidge. What’s your name?” Pidge sits down and starts rummaging through her pockets, to see if she has anything useful in them.

“Aruraumon.” The Digimon hums, “Pidge is a weird name for a Digimon.”

“I’m not.” Pidge pulls out her phone, “I’m a human being from the Human World.”

Aruraumon blinks in confusion, “Human being? Like the DigiDestined?”

“Yep. I’m friends with 3 of them and I’m starting to think all of us are going to wind up with a partner one way or another.” Pidge starts typing, “I mean, there are only 5 of us, with no hint of other humans anywhere in this world. I’d be really shocked if one of us ended up without a Digimon Partner by the end of our adventures.”

“I see.” Aruraumon laughs softly, “Who’d have thought a human being claiming they’re a DigiDestined would be the one to trip on me today?”

“I never said I was one, I just think I might be one day.” Pidge turns to her, “Do you get tripped on a lot?”

“Yeah. No one notices a plant Digimon in the forest.” Aruraumon shrugs and sits up, “You get used to it and hey, hiding is pretty useful when your forest is being terrorized by a nasty monster.”

“Nasty monster? I thought that the whole Digital World was full of monsters.” Pidge goes back to typing.

“Yeah, but there’s a real piece of work in particular who lives to wreck the place.” Aruraumon looks up at the top of the pit, “His name’s Devidramon and though he can fly, he’d much rather attack everything in sight and ruin everything. Knightmon sent him in to extract Fractal Code from the forest, so most of the Digimon have gone into hiding since they don’t wanna be eaten by that thing.”

Pidge freezes, “Eaten?”

Aruraumon nods, “Yep. He’s been known to eat Digimon who can’t get away from him. It’s easy to get to a Digimon’s Fractal Code that way.”

“Will they come back?” Pidge sets down her phone, “I thought Digimon couldn’t die.”

“We can’t, we just get reconfigured.” Aruraumon looks at her arms, “But if our data’s unable to get to the Village of Beginnings, we won’t be ourselves when we come back. We won’t have our memories or our personalities and become someone entirely new.”

Pidge shudders, “That sounds scary.”

“It is.” Aruraumon looks at her device with curiosity, “What’s the thingy you’re tapping?”

“It’s my phone. I’m trying to talk to my family in the Human World with it.” Pidge bites her lip, “I don’t want them to worry, but I haven’t been able to find a signal since yesterday.”

“You miss them?” Aruraumon murmurs.

“Yeah. It’s just my mother, my dog and me, since my older brother and dad went missing about a year ago.” Pidge opens up a photo of herself with longer hair, a woman with short hair, a teenager who looks like an older version of Pidge, a dog in his arms and a man with grey hair, “I didn’t mean to leave without talking to my mother to let her know where I’m going, but I got caught up and now… I’m here and she doesn’t know where I am.” She groans, “I’m so grounded when I get back. I hope she’s not too mad at me.”

Aruraumon hums and looks around, “Well, we better get out of here. You’ve got people who need you and I think if we work together, we can get you to them.”

Pidge blinks at her in confused and closes her phone, “Weren’t we trying to punch each other just now?”

“Your story made me decide I’ve been a bit of a jerk to you and want to help you get back to your mother on earth.” Aruraumon offers her hand, “So, Pidge of the Human World, do you want to team up for a bit?”

Pidge blinks and grins, taking Aruraumon’s hand, “Sure thing. Also I’m sorry for tripping on you and kicking you and being a brat in general.”

Aruraumon shrugs, “We all make mistakes. Now, how are we going to get out?”

Pidge looks around again and hums, “You could climb on my shoulders and I could try to push you out?”

“Then I can pull you out once I’m on steady footing!” Aruraumon claps her fingers, “Let’s get to work then.”

Pidge nods and smiles.

* * *

Shiro walks towards Pidge’s backpack, then turns to the forest, “Pidge should’ve been back by now if she was just using the bathroom.”

Keith follows her gaze and his eyes narrow as he grabs his art bag, “Yeah. Something’s not right.”

Coronamon looks between the two, “Should we go looking for her?”

“Yeah, I’m starting to get worried.” Hunk murmurs, then turns to, “Patamon, could you fly around and see if you can find Pidge from the air?”

“The forest seems really thick, but I can try.” Patamon finishes eating his apple and takes to the skies, “I’ll be back here soon, please don’t go anywhere!”

He disappears over the trees and Armadillomon frowns, “I hope they’re okay.”

Lance finishes eating his apple and pats her head, “Don’t worry, Patamon can probably outfly anything that’ll hurt him and Pidge’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

Syakomon giggles as she jumps into his lap, “That’s right!”

“They should be alright, but I think we may need to go looking for her. You guys okay to split up?” Shiro shoulders the backpack and looks at the rest of the team, who nod in agreement. “Okay. Someone should stay here and wait for Patamon to come back or if-”

The ground starts to shake and a mighty roar fills the area.

Patamon cries as he flies back into the area, “Everyone hide, run, get away!”

“Patamon!” Hunk gasped as the frightened Digimon flies straight into his arms, “What happened, what scared you?”

“Devidramon’s here!” Patamon whimpers, “We have to run away before he gets us!”

“Who’d Devidramon?” Lance asks, sweat dropping.

Syakomon whimpers and hops into his arms, “Someone we really don’t wanna meet!”

The trees start breaking and tearing down. The others scream as a giant Digimon crashes through the underbrush and they turn around to start running down stream.

* * *

Pidge pants as she carries Aruraumon on her back, “You sure you can’t heal any faster?”

“Not without sunlight or some medicinal sap. I’m going as fast as I can.” Aruraumon whimpers, arms around Pidge’s neck, “Can’t you walk any faster to this clearing you said your allies were at?”

“No, because unlike Shiro, I’m not an athletic beast.” Pidge huffs and sits down on a log, “And I haven’t eaten in forever, so excuse me if I’m tired and hungry and not up for carrying a grouchy customer across a rough forest terrain.”

Aruraumon falls flat on her back once she’s set down and tries to soak up the bits of sunlight peeking through the leaves. She contemplates Pidge’s words and sticks her roots in the ground. She connects with the trees around her, trying to discern which ones are fruiting at a time like this. The Meat Apples are providing, but they don’t have time to cook them. The Blue Bananas aren’t ready yet either, but the Cocoa Grapes…

“I know where to find food!” Aruraumon shouts, sitting up.

Pidge turns towards her, “How far is it?”

“Not far at all!” Aruraumon smiles and points north, “Just a few trees away, the Cocoa Grapes are ripe for the picking!”

“Cocoa Grapes?” Pidge mumbles, offering Aruraumon her hand.

Aruraumon nods and gets pulled up, hopping on her one working leg, “They’re small fruits that taste like a human delicacy known as chocolate.”

Pidge gasps and starts pulling Aruraumon along, “Come on then, let’s get some food!”

Aruraumon giggles as she tries to keep up and is then yanked onto Pidge’s back, “Whoa! I thought you couldn’t carry me for much longer!”

“I found motivation when you suggested food and I haven’t exactly been the nicest person lately.” Pidge gives Aruraumon a smile, “So it’s straight ahead?”

“Yes, just between those two pairs of trees, then look on your left!” Aruraumon instructs as Pidge runs through them.

“Right!”

“No, left!”

Pidge turns to the left and looks up in shock, accidentally dropping Aruraumon, “Whoa.”

The tree is relatively tall with bunches of pink, brown, black and white grapes hanging from the trees.

Aruraumon huffs from the drop, “Hope you don’t treat your poor laptop like this all the time.”

Pidge flushes, “Nope, hang on, I’ll see if I can get them down.”

She starts climbing the tree and manages to do it with ease somehow. Pidge crawls across a branch and grabs onto the top of a bunch of pink grapes, “Why are they different colors?”

“Different colours show their different flavours. Pink is strawberry chocolate, white is white chocolate and so on and so forth.” Aruraumon shuffles to lean against one of the trees, “How are you so good at climbing if you don’t like exercise?”

“My family used to rock climb all the time when I was younger, before my brother and father disappeared.” Pidge manages to pull off the pink grapes and toses them towards Aruraumon, “It was the only way to get me out of the house and in nature, though luckily I didn’t run into that much poison oak or sunburn while climbing.”

Aruraumon catches the bundle of grapes and starts eating them, “I thought climbing took a lot of strength? You don’t seem to have it.”

“It’s more lower body strength than upper, so I’m not good at carrying stuff.” Pidge reaches for another bunch of grapes, this time white ones, “But I was always the one with the least amount of stamina in the family, anyway.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Aruraumon pops a grape in her mouth, “Considering how much you tend to run your mouth, I’m sure you have more stamina than you think.”

“Haha, yes, I am an expert at that.” Pidge yanks the white ones and starts climbing.

Aruraumon giggles, “I noticed.”

Pidge hits the ground and walks over to where Aruraumon is sitting. She pops down by her side and starts eating the grapes. They really do taste like white chocolate and the juice is like liquid chocolate. It’s pretty nice.

Aruraumon smiles, “So what’s it like having a family?”

Pidge blinks, “You don’t have one?”

Aruraumon shakes her head, “Not really. I was born in the Village of Beginnings, but when the Trailmon came to send us to our villages, I ended up falling off the train at this forest. I’ve been here ever since, protecting it like it protected me as a kid. Not a lot of Digimon live in the forest, or if they do, they’re not the kind that like to make friends.”

Pidge hums, “Do you get lonely?”

“Sometimes.” Aruraumon nods, “But then,” She digs her roots into the ground and smiles at the forest’s network, “I connect to the other plants and, it’s like I’m not alone. I’m never alone in this forest full of trees that can connect to each other the way they do.”

Pidge frowns and looks at her feet, “I’ve never really been able to do that.”

Aruraumon blinks at her, “Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve always struggled to connect to others. People, animals, anything really.” Pidge curls in on herself, setting the grapes aside, “My family are special to me. They’ve been there for me before I could even remember and we all talk the same language; science. My brother Matt’s better at making friends than I am and I only really get to hang out with Shiro because of that. My parents have some friends, but they’re mostly connected through work. And me, well…”

Aruraumon puts her hand on Pidge’s head, “Hey, you’ve got a pretty big heart, Pidge. I’m sure you have more friends than you think you do. Like me!”

Pidge turns to her in shock, “What?”

“We’re friends.” Aruraumon declares, “I’ve not got many, but I’m pretty sure that when you care about each other, share your past, help each other out and work well as a team, that makes you friends.”

Pidge smiles slowly, “I guess that’s a good definition of friendship.”

Aruraumon holds up a fist, “So, friends?”

Pidge returns the fist, “Friends.”

The two bump fists and smile.

* * *

In some bushes in the forest, voices float out.

“Is that thing gone?”

“I don’t know but I don’t wanna be the one to find out.”

“Come on, guys, we have to be brave. Someone has to check if the coast is clear.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Be careful, Keith.”

Keith pokes his head out of the bushes and glances around. He sees no sign of their hunter in front of them, but he can’t see the back of the bushes from this angle, “It’s clear on my end, but I can’t see behind us. Anyone willing to volunteer?”

“I got your back, partner!”

Coronamon pops his head out on the other side, which is similarly empty, “All clear!”

The rest of the gang slowly climb out of the bushes, Lance needing to be tugged out by Shiro when he gets caught in the branches. Hunk brushes some leaves out of his hair while the Digimon crawl out without incident. Shiro then pulls out Pidge’s backpack and puts it on her shoulders and Keith grabs his art bag.

“I can’t believe something like that is just wandering around in this place.” Lance leans back, creaking his back, “Hope Pidge is safe with that thing around.”

Shiro nods, “Me too.”

Hunk glances around and gasps, “Guys, look!”

He runs over, his Digimon following behind with the others behind him. Hunk falls to his knees and picks up a rather familiar item.

“That’s Pidge’s laptop!” Patamon flaps his ears.

“Why would she leave it lying on the ground like that?” Armadillomon shakes her head, “It’s not like Pidge at all.”

Shiro nods, “You two are right.”

Hunk stands up and gulps, “You don’t think she-”

That same terrifying roar fills the air again and everyone runs off screaming in the opposite direction.

* * *

Pidge and Aruraumon gasp when they hear the horrible sound.

“That sounds like Devidramon!” Aruraumon gets to her feet, wincing, “We have to get out of here!”

Pidge stands up as well, then she hears a scream, “That’s Shiro!”

She turns towards the noise and starts running.

Aruraumon gapes at her, then groans, “Ohhh come on, we’re actually running towards the big murder monster?!”

Pidge huffs, “If we can save my friends from it, then yes!”

Aruraumon scowls and extends her vines, grabbing onto the tree branches and starts swinging from then, “You’re an odd one, Pidge!”

“That’s what they all say!” Pidge glances to her side where Aruraumon is swinging, “Hey, why didn’t you do that earlier, you lazy Digimon?!”

“Because I didn’t have the energy earlier, obviously, dumb human!” Aruraumon scowls, and wraps a vine around Pidge’s waist, “Now grab onto me and don’t let go!”

Pidge is lifted towards Aruraumon’s body and wraps her arms around her neck, “I got you!”

Aruraumon keeps swinging as the roars and screams grow louder, “So, do we have a plan on how to save your friends?”

Pidge hums.

* * *

The rest of the gang run through the forest, panicking and screaming. Hunk is carrying Pidge’s laptop and Patamon, Shiro is carrying Armadillomon while holding Keith’s hand, who’s got his other arm wrapped around Coronamon, who is clinging to Keith’s art bag and at the head of the pack is Lance holding Syakomon.

“If we don’t lose that ugly mug, we’re done for!” Lance screams.

“Should we split up to confuse him?!” Keith glances to Shiro.

“I don’t like it, but it may be our best option!” Shiro looks around, “The forest is thick enough that we’ll lose each other as well though!”

Hunk looks at the sky, “Well I’d rather be separated than dead-”

“GUYS STOP-”

Everyone turns to the front seconds too late to stop from pushing each other into a pit, screaming as they tumble down.

Lance groans as he sits up, “Too late.”

Syakomon screams, “HE’S GONNA EAT US!”

Everyone looks up to come face to face with the ugly Digimon that had been chasing them. Coloured black all over it’s body, minus it’s grey lower jaw, the general shape of the Digimon is vaguely reminiscent of a dragon. Two elongated arms, the right wrapped in brown bandages/the left in black leather belts below the elbow, both hands tipped with red claws, with the left one baring a red bat-like tattoo. The right shoulder has 3 flat, circular pieces of metal sticking out and the left has a skull tattoo. It has two large, holed wings on the back of the shoulder blades and two wings half the size on it’s lower back. It has a sticked on tail, wrapped in black leather and tipped in 3 claws. It’s feet are tipped with even longer black claws, the left knee adoring a cross tattoo and the right sticked on. It’s ribs are visible, with bat wings on top of it’s head and smaller ones just below that. 4 angry red eyes stare them down.

“Devidramon’s been the one chasing us?! It’s a miracle we’re not dead yet, considering his Red Eyes attack can paralyse anyone who he looks at. As a Champion Level, Dark Dragon Digimon, he’s too powerful for any of us to beat as we are.”

Coronamon gulps, “We’re doomed.”

Armadillomon looks around, “I could try digging us somewhere to hide, but I don’t know if I can dig fast enough to hide us all from him!”

Shiro gets to her feet, picking up a rock and dropping Pidge’s backpack, “Start digging then, Armadillomon! The rest you help her, I’ll keep Devidramon busy!”

“Shiro, no!” Keith reaches for her, dropping his art bag.

Shiro screams as she runs towards the edge of the pit and manages to climb out. She throws the rock at Devidramon’s stomach and kicks him in the shin. Devidramon growls and turns his head to try to spot her-

“ **WATER PRESSURE!** ”

Syakomon’s attack catches him in the eyes, making him roar and howl.

“Don’t worry, Shiro!” Syakomon calls, Coronamon and Patamon at her side, “We’ve got your back!”

“That’s right!” Patamon takes to the air, sucking it in and spitting out clouds, “ **BREEZE BLASTER!** ”

The clouds fill the area around Devidramon’s head.

Patamon smirks, “Can’t freeze us if he can’t see us!”

“That’s brilliant, Patamon!” Shiro smiles and dashes to the trees to break off a branch, “Keep it up and we might be able to confuse him enough to lead him away from us!”

“You got it, chief!” Coronamon throws a thumb up, “Syakomon launch me at him!”

“Hope on the **WATER SHOT** express!” Syakomon uses a stream of water to lift Coronamon into the air.

Coronamon laughs as he rides it, then his fists heat up and he starts throwing punches, “ **CORONA-KNUCKLE!** ”

He strikes Devidramon in the face rapidly and repeatedly, screaming all the while. Shiro uses the branch to smack him in the back of the knee, making Devidramon howl and fall too his knee. Shiro runs to attack the other leg in the same fashion, when Devidramon unleashes a truly horrendous roar.

Everyone drops everything to cover their ears from the screaming, even Armadillomon, Hunk and Lance, who are waist deep into the dirt.

“ **TOUCH OF EVIL!** ” Slashes of darkness break through the clouds and strike everyone, knocking all the Digimon down into the pit.

Shiro gasps, then screams as Devidramon’s tail opens up and grabs her. It throws her into the pit, where Keith manages to catch her, the two of them rolling with the impact.

“You okay?” Keith grits his teeth.

Shiro flushes, “Yeah, you?”

Keith grins, “I’ve been better.”

“Damnit, how come Keith gets to fall with Shiro?!” Lance whines

“Run you idiot!” Hunk grabs the back of Lance’s shirt, pulling him out of the way of a slash of darkness.

Armadillomon jumps out of the way too, “We’re out in the open! We’re defenseless!”

“ **RED EYES!** ” Devidramon’s eyes glow crimson red and everyone freezes stiff.

Everyone tries to move, but they can’t, they can’t close their eyes or open their mouths or even move their tongues to speak. They’re trapped and at the mercy of Devidramon.

Devidramon growls and uses his tail to pick up Shiro and Keith, who’d been gripping her tightly when he’d been frozen. He licks his lips as their eyes frantically look around in panic before settling on each other.

Devidramon lifts them up and he opens his mouth as the two continue to stare at one another, tears slipping down their faces.

“NOT TODAY, DRAGON BREATHE! **GLOOMY DUST!** ”

A purple fog appears in front of Devidramon’s eyes, making him scream and yowl in pain. It blocks his vision enough for Shiro and Keith to squirm out of Devidramon’s tail. They scream as they fall, holding each other tightly when Coronamon jumps to catch them. They hit the ground in a tumble, but they survive.

“Guys, over here!”

The three of them smile when they turn their heads, “PIDGE!”

Pidge shushes them and waves her arms harder, “Hurry and get behind the bushes where Devidramon won’t see you!”

The three of them dash behind the cover, Keith spying out the corner of his eye Hunk helping pull the others out of the pit. Armadillomon and Patamon fuss next to him, Pidge’s laptop between them as Syakomon comes up, then Pidge’s backpack, Keith’s art bag and finally Lance. Hunk puts Pidge’s laptop into her backpack, then the group head for the trees when Pidge calls them over, Lance holding Keith’s art bag like it’ll bite him.

“Okay, now we’re just waiting on Aruraumon to show up.” Pidge looks up towards the dust cloud.

“Who?” Lance blinks.

Pidge shushes him, “Keep it down, none of you make a sound. The plan is to sneak away before he finds us again.”

A Digimon jumps down from the dust cloud and grabs onto some trees with elongated claws, before setting down as Devidramon continues to howl. She looks at the others and nods, “Aruraumon.”

The others smile at her.

“Thanks for saving us.” Shiro hums.

Aruraumon nods, “Hurry, stay low and under the tree cover.”

The group nods and crawls along the ground, following Aruarumon and Pidge as they lead the way. They hide under bushes and trees and Devidramon’s screaming grows quieter. Once they make it a decent distance and the screams have stopped all together, Lance looks behind them.

“Did we lose him?” He whispers.

“ **DEMONIC GALE!** ”

Winds stronger than any of them expected strike the ground around them and the vegetation above them, making everyone scream and revealing their position too Devidramon.

“ **CRIMSON CLAW!** ”

The trees above them are chopped up and Devidramon snarls above them, drool dripping from his mouth. Everyone screams as they scramble to get away, running in every direction. But then Pidge trips on her own feet and Devidramon closes his mouth on her.

“PIDGE!” Hunk and Shiro shriek.

Keith turns his head away as Coronamon and Lance start crying, Lance dropping the art bag and covering his mouth as he does. Syakomon, Armadillomon and Patamon freeze as if Devidramon had looked at them.

Aruraumon trembles, then screams to the heavens as she digs her roots into the ground, “FOREST HELP ME!”

The trees begin to shake on their own, their fruits turning into Fractal Code that surrounds Aruraumon in a cocoon.

**_ARURAUMON!_ **

**_DIGIVOLVE TO…._ **

She glows dark green and triples in size, the spines on her back and her tail moving up to her shoulders and elongating out into wings that reach her knees. The flower on her head cuts in half, turning into two long antennae, two spare petals going behind her head and becoming hair. Grey armour appears and attaches to her forearms, hands, shoulders, thighs and feet.

**_STINGMON!_ **

The new Digimon charges Devidramon with a roar, “ **SPINNING SPIKING STRIKE!** ”

She starts kicking the air, making blades of wind that attack Devidramon in the throat and face. He chokes and spits, Pidge falling out of his mouth and being caught by the new Digimon.

She groans as she tries to brush herself off of the spit, “Oh for the love of-and you couldn’t have done that sooner, Aruraumon?!”

The new Digimon blushes, “Well, it’s not like you being eaten was in the plan and the Forest isn’t big on destruction! Also it’s Stringmon now, so I’ll make sure you get cleaned up after we deal with this guy.”

Pidge scoffs, “Whatever, just put me down so you can beat this guy already.”

Stingmon chuckles and puts her down with the rest of the gang, “You sure are grumpy.”

“I ALMOST GOT EATEN ALIVE! EXCUSE ME FOR BEING GRUMPY ABOUT THAT!” Pidge screams.

“PIDGE!” Hunk shouts, dropping her backpack, wrapping his arms around her, sobbing like a baby, “I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU, I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO DIE!”

Pidge turns pink, “Hunk, I’m covered in dragon drool, you really shouldn’t be hugging me right now!”

“I DON’T CARE!” Shiro sobs as she joins in on the hug, “YOU’RE ALIVE AND OKAY ENOUGH TO BE GRUMPY, THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS!”

Pidge groans, “Shiro.”

_(I’m Going Digital by Jasan Radford starts playing)_

Devidramon growls and swings his arms around in a chopping fashion, “ **CRIMSON CLAW!** ”

“ **MULTI-MOON SHOOTER!** ” Stingmon fires multiple giant thorns from the armour on her wrists.

The thorns attack at Devidramon’s claws, cutting them in half. He snarls in anger and rage, then his eyes start to glow red, “ **RED EY** -”

Stingmon flies to the back of his head, “ **SPINNING SPIKING STRIKE!** ”

The blade winds attack him from behind, making him scream in pain as he closes his eyes. Stingmon flies around him and gets high enough to see his whole body.

“ _Knees appear to still be weak from previous attack. Mouth, face and shoulders bruising from attack. Claws, main method of attack, removed. Eyes and tail are now the only weapons it has available. Eyes are especially dangerous, but also likely it’s greatest weakness._ ” Stingmon analyses, then nods to herself, “ _Mission objective: make eyes useless. Best strategy? Long range attacks._ ”

Stingmon aims her gauntlets at Devidramon’s head, “ **MULTI-MOON SHOOTER!** ”

The storm of giant thorns descends upon Devidramon again. He sees them a moment too late and gets stabbed in the eyes by them. He howls and uses what’s left of his claws to cradle his face in pain.

“ _Mission object: Achieved. Next step: destruction._ ” Stingmon lets two extra long spikes grow from her shooter on her gauntlet, “ **SPIKING STRIKE!** ”

She sweeps in with her two blades over her chest in an X shape, then cuts through Devidramon. She lands behind him, both blades to her sides. There’s a moment of silence.

Devidramon howls one final time as he bursts into little bits, his Fractal Code appearing from his core and his egg floats away. The Fractal Code rushes to the trees that gave their fruit to Aruraumon and soon they grow fresh from the trees. Stingmon retracks her spikes and glows before turning back into Aruraumon at the end of the music.

Pidge, slightly less slimey after the hugging, runs over to her, “Aruraumon! You alive?!”

Aruraumon weakly lifts up a hand and waves it as Pidge drops to her knees by her side, “Barely. Who knew Digivolving would make you smart and tired?”

Pidge laughs and grabs her hand, “I’d offer to carry you to the river, but I don’t think you want to be slimey.”

Aruraumon chuckles, “Nope.”

A bright sphere of light appears above the two. Pidge gasps softly as she grabs the light with one hand, using the other to prop Aruraumon up to look at it. The light fades to reveal a device that looks similar to a phone.

With a white base, green grips, it has a black antenna on the top left. At the top centre of the device is a square shaped grey screen with a black circle around it and two arrow shaped buttons. Below the screen is a little red button with a white circle inside it, a line and a white dot on top of it. Below the red button is a ring shaped button with two small arrows pointing directly to the left and right from each other.

Pidge grins, “Well, I didn’t expect to be the next to become a DigiDestined, but I ain’t complaining.”

Aruraumon blinks, “Really? Well I’m glad we’re partners. Now let’s go clean off, please? And get some food?”

The rest of the group chuckle as they join them.

* * *

 

Everyone is gathered around a large fire as meat apples on sticks sit close to them. Pidge has Aruraumon on her right and Shiro on her left, who has Keith on her left, Coronamon, Hunk, Patamon, Armadillomon, Lance and finally Syakomon.

Pidge scowls as she sits in her dripping cloths, “Well I don’t have dragon drool on me anymore, but now I’m gonna catch a cold, which is almost as bad.”

Aruraumon hums, “You could take all your clothes off so they can dry faster.”

Pidge flushes, “NO WAY!”

Aruraumon blinks in confusion.

Shiro flushes as she coughs into her hand, “Humans need clothes because we get cold really easily and quickly, which will just make it easier for Pidge to get sick. And she doesn’t have any she can wear while the ones she has are drying.”

“Ohhhh.” Aruraumon hums, “Well why don’t we roast her over the fire?”

“Because I don’t wanna be burned alive either!” Pidge scoffs, “Besides the apples are still cooking.”

Keith picks one up and examines it, “I’d say they’re done, actually. And if you wanted Pidge, you could borrow my jacket.”

Pidge blinks, then nods, “Yeah, okay.”

Keith smiles and takes his jacket off, handing it to Pidge. She takes it and runs behind a tree to change.

Coronamon hums, “Humans are so weird, if clothes are such an issue for you guys, we should go to the market next.”

Lance blinks in surprise, “Market?”

“Yeah, there’s one I visit form time to time not far from here.” Coronamon grins, “The Spring Flower Market has anything and everything any Digimon could possibly need. I’m sure we’d be able to find some cloths for you guys.”

Shiro looks at everyone’s outfits, “We aren’t exactly equipped for the travel we’ve been doing for these last few weeks.”

Keith frowns, “But we don’t have any money from the Digital World, we wouldn’t be able to get anything from the market.”

Coronamon frowns, “I’m out of Digidollars too, since my house burned down.”

Hunk looks at his partners, “You two got anything?”

Patamon shakes his head, “Nope. I forgot to bring any.”

Armadillomon smiles sheepishly, “Besides, IceDevimon took most of our money as soon as he took over.”

Lance groans, falling on his back, “We’ll starve in the Digital World, I know it!”

Syakomon whimpers, slumping on Lance’s side, “Goodbye world!”

Pidge snaps her fingers from behind the tree, “What if we worked at whatever place was making clothes and food?”

Aruraumon blinks, “You mean you wouldn’t do that anyway?”

All heads turn to her.

“I have a regular stall at the market.” Aruraumon blushes, rubbing the back of her head, “I bring in whatever fruits are ready at the time and then work in a coffee shop after, so I can get money to buy special soil for the forest.”

Everyone beams and starts firing off statements over each other. Someone suggests making small boxes so they can sell extra products at parks or stadiums. Another one is some people working at the coffee shop and other places while the stall is being run. The talks and suggestions continue over meet apples and a burning fire as the sky turns darker and the 3 moons rise higher. Pidge changes back into her shirt and gives Keith his jacket.

Then her laptop beeps.

Everyone rushes over to it, Pidge being the fastest since she was the closest to the tree. She loads it up and cries out in joy.

“I got a signal and an email! It’s from my Mom!”

* * *

Colleen Holt surveys her empty board that had fallen to pieces in the earthquake that had just occured. She picks up an article on the ground and a pin to put it in place.

**SON & FATHER SCIENCE DUO MISSING!**

**No one knows where or how it happened, but late last night, scientists Samuel and Matthew Holt, father and son, who were doing research into other realities, disappeared. Their last known sighting was at the Garrison laboratories at 8pm last night, before going home.**

**There are no signs of a struggle in the facilities they were accessing last night, which were mainly the computer labs and the bathrooms. Security Footage is inaccessible to the staff due to a power surge that happened during the night, frying everything at the Garrison and putting everyone in the city in a blackout.**

**We interviewed the rest of this family of geniuses, Colleen Holt and her daughter Katie.**

**“I have no idea what could have made Sam or Matt want to run away and there’s no one who would want to hurt them.” Colleen told us early this morning over a mug of coffee, “The both of them have strong friendships in the Garrison. Sam is just so kind to everyone and Matt could never hurt a fly.”**

**“Dad and Matt aren’t ones to give up or be stupid in the lab. I don’t know what they were working on, but they wouldn’t abandon Mom and me.” Katie told us as she was heading for school, “Whoever has them is going to be sorry.”**

**The police and Garrison have issued a statement, claiming they won’t rest until the Holt Family is reunited, in a collaborative investigation.**

A year old and no new clues to this day. Colleen finishes pinning everything up.

BRRRRING!

Colleen looks behind her to find her phone chiming. New email? She’s not expecting one. Opening it up, she reads through.

_Hi Mom! Pidge here!_

_I know it’s been a whole day since I talked to you last, but I promise I’m fine. Relatively fine. Okay, I’m somehow in some alternate reality or another planet, with various types of creatures with different ranges of intelligence and Shiro. Some of the creatures are hostile, but others are friendly and we’re working out a survival strategy as we speak. Can’t get signal often, but will email back when I can._

_Pidge out!_

Colleen blinks, then begins typing.

_Pidge, this is Mom._

_It’s only been an hour since I’ve seen you go with Shiro for jogging. How did you get transported to another world? Are the non-hostile creatures protecting you from the hostile ones? If this is an elaborate joke young lady, you will be grounded. If it’s not, please stay safe and come home soon. I can’t lose you like I lost your brother and father._

_Love, Mom._

* * *

 

“What? That can’t be right!” Pidge starts typing as fast as she can, “It’s been 2 days now, right? Including this one?!”

“No, you’re right Pidge.” Shiro looks to 3 moons, “Does time pass differently here than on Earth?”

“Everyday feels like 24 hours.” Hunk looks at his partners, “That is how long the days here are, right?”

They nod.

Lance gulps, “How far are we from Earth then, if for us there’s been 2 days, but your Mom has barely felt an hour since you left her house?”

Pidge groans, “Considering how inteligent the life is here and the fact that we have 3 moons and 1 star around us. A long, long ways away.”

Shiro hums, “Pidge, does your Mom know we’re all here with you? Mind seeing if she can get our families together?”

Keith stiffens.

“Good idea!” Lance grins, “Tell my Mom, my dad, my sister Veronica…”

He continues to list of his family, with Hunk chiming in about his own gigantic family while Keith stares at the ground. Shiro looks at him from the corner of her eye and looks to Coronamon, who seems concerned.

The two nod at each other, then Shiro says to the others, “I’m going to get some firewood,” turning to Keith, “you mind helping me?”

Keith blinks and nods, then the two head off into the woods with Coronamon on their tails. Shiro stops further enough in where she can barely see the fire, then turns to Keith. He blinks at her confusedly while Coronamon gets between the two to look at them as they talk.

“Everything okay? You didn’t look happy at Pidge’s question.” Shiro frowns slightly.

Keith blinks, then sighs, “I don’t-”

“I just wanted to say that it’s okay if you don’t. I lost my parents, too.” Shiro offers her hand, “And you can confide in me, if you want to.”

Keith stares at her hand in shock, then sucks in a breathe through his teeth as he takes it.

Coronamon cooes and hugs Keith’s leg, “You can confide in me too, Keith!”

Keith manages a laugh and nods, “Thanks guys.”

* * *

 

A few hours later finds almost everyone curled up and sleeping. Keith and Shiro had talked for hours while chopping and gathering firewood with Coronamon’s warm hugs and childish jokes. Upon returning to camp, everyone else had prepared to turn in and Shiro took first watch again.

Currently, Pidge is slumped against her backpack, laptop open in her lap while Aruraumon sleeps on her legs, head tucked into her arms and roots dug into the ground. Keith is in the tree, Coronamon curled up in his arms like a cuddly toy, his art bag hanging from another branch. Lance has Syakomon in his lap while drooling on Hunk’s shoulder, who has Patamon in his lap and Armadillomon under his arm.

Shiro sits alone, tending to the fire and staring at it. Through her mind’s eye, flash everyone’s bonding moments with their own Digimon Partners and their D-3s becoming their own.

Shiro looks up at the stars and the three moons. One falls from the sky and Shiro makes a wish.

“ _Please let me find a partner. Please don’t let me being here be an accident. Please let me help._ ”

_“Aww, poor Shiro probably feels pretty useless right now. Will her wish come true? Tune into the next Digimon: Digital Monsters to find out!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://fullmetaldude1.tumblr.com/post/180357128012/digimon-paladins-chapter-4-forest-saviour Link for the fourth chapter, please reblog so I can be supported.

**Author's Note:**

> http://fullmetaldude1.tumblr.com/tagged/Digimon-Paladins This is where you can find all the chapter's links and other news about this series.


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